.0738 


rhi.jiS.'U'    . 


8 


PAPERS 


Genekal  Conference 


OF  THB 


otip$(|alioiial 


Cr.'v^\^ec^  '. 


Grt-V\e.V-a\ 


CONNECTICUT. 


1877- 


HARTFORDi 
PRINTED  BY  DAVID  B.  MOSELEY. 


u 


MEMORIAL    SKETCHES. 

Rev.  Samuel  Nott,  D.  D.     1782-1852. 
Rev.  Abkl  McEwen,  D.  D.     1806-1860. 
Rev.  Noah  Porter,  D.  D.     1806-1866. 
Judge  Thomas  Scott  Williams,  LL.  D. 
Gov.  William  Alfred  Buckingham,  LL.  D. 
Hon.  Henry  Philemon  Haven. 


NOTE.      -  * 

These  papers  prepared  for  and  read  before  the  General  Conference,  are  pnt  in  thia 
form  for  preservation  and  reference  at  comparatively  small  expense,  after  being  printed 
for  general  circnlation  in  the  Religious  Herald.  If  the  plan  is  followed,  from  year  to 
year,  the  result  will  bo  a  most  valuable  collection  of  historical  matter,  which  all  intelligent 
Christians,  and  especially  Christian  ministers  will  find  full  of  interest. 


BEY.  SAMUEL  NOTT,  D.  D. 


Sketch  of  Rev.    Samuel  Nott,  D.  D. 

BY  KEV.  F.  C.  JONES. 

Samuel  Nott  was  pastor  of  the  church  in 
Franklin,  Conn.,  for  a  period  of  seventy 
years,  ending  in  1852.  The  story  of  his 
early  life  strikingly  illustrates  the  provi- 
dence of  God  in  training  men  for  his  work. 
Something  of  that  early  history  must  be 
noted,  if  we  would  know  the  man.  In 
1756  the  Rev.  Abraham  Nott,  of  Saybrook, 
on  his  death-bed  expressed  the  wish  that 
his  grandson,  then  two  years  of  age,  might 
be  educated  for  the  ministry,  and  be- 
queathed to  him  his  library.  The  parents 
of  the  little  boy  purposed  to  fulfill  this 
wish,  but  in  a  few  years  financial  misfor- 
tunes reduced  the  family  to  extreme  pov- 
erty, and  made  it  impossible  to  carry  out 
this  intention.  All  must  work  for  a  living. 
Between  the  ages  of  eight  and  twenty  the 
life  of  Samuel  was  one  of  almost  constant 
manual  labor.  He  tried  his  hand  at  many 
things ;  and  it  proved  a  hand  that  could 
do  many  things  well.  Before  he  attained 
his  majority  he  might  have  called  himself 
a  blacksmith,  a  farmer,  a  shoemaker,  a 
tanner,  or  a  mason  ;  and  proved  his  right 
to  each  title  by  creditable  work.  With  a 
mind  naturally  quick  and  versatile,  he  had 
■  also  an  industry,  and  perseverance,  and  an 
ambition  to  excel,  which  made  him  a  favor- 
ite with  his  employers. 

In  homes  of  poverty  and  toil  like  his 
have  been  reared  many  of  the  noblest  and 
most  useful  sons  of  New  England,  His 
parents  were  of  Puritan  stock  and  Puritan 
principles.  The  mother,  really  the  main- 
stay of  the  family,  was  a  woman  of  supe- 
rior mind  and  education  ;  sound  in  judg- 
ment, fertile  in  resources  ;  firm,  yet  gentle  : 


in  discipline ;  and  ardently  fond  of  knowl- 
edge.    To  her,  in   a  great  degree.  Union 
College  owed  its  renowned  president,  and 
Connecticut  one  of  its  most  useful   and 
honored  pastors.     She  sought  to  inspire 
Samuel  with  her  own  love  of  knowledge, 
and  would  often  say,   "  learning  and  good 
conduct  make  a  man. "    Yet  at  the  age  of 
eighteen  he  had  attended  school  but  eleven 
months  in  all.     At  home   there  were  no 
books  but  the  Bible,  the  Catechism,  the 
New  England  Primer,  and  an  old  volume 
of  sermons.     The  deceased  minister's  li- 
brary had  perished  in  the  destruction   of 
his  father's  house  by  fire.     But  the  love  of 
learning  which  was  born  in  him,  and  had 
been  kept  alive  by  his  mother's  influence, 
was  suddenly  to  be  fanned  into  a  flame. 
He  was  invited  to  teach   a  school.     Trem- 
bling in  view  of  his  slender  knowledge, — 
but  with  a   spirit  ready  for  anything, — he 
undertook  it,  and  succeeded  in  giving  gen- 
eral satisfaction, — at  four  dollars  a  month  ! 
How  he  studied  to  prevent   his  scholars 
from  finding  out  that  they  knew  more  than 
he  did !     That   winter's  work   kindled   in 
him  the  purpose  to  obtain  a  collegiate  ed- 
ucation.     He  returned    home,    gave    his 
wages  to  his  parents,  and  asked  their  per- 
mission to  fit  for  college.     He  did  not  tell 
them  that  he  had  it   also  in  mind  to  be- 
come a  minister,  and   a  missionary  to  the 
Indians.     They  thought  him  mad.     They 
needed  his    help ;    they    reminded    him 
that  five  dollars  and   an  old  gun  were  all 
his  wealth  ;  but  they  could  not  quench  hia 
zeal.     They  then  advised  him  to  consult 
the  Rev.    Mr.    "Welch,  of  Mansfield,  confi- 
dent that  he  would   discourage  so  wild  a 
project.     On  the  contrary,  Mr.  Welch,  dis- 
cerning his  capacity,  offered  to  teach  him 


DR.    HOTT. 


gratuitously  for  six  months.  In  two  years 
from  that  time  he  was  ready  for  Yale  Col- 
lege, which  he  entered  in  1776.  Mean- 
while he  supported  himself  in  various 
ways.  He  wrought  in  the  hay  and  harvest 
fields ;  he  taught  school ;  he  tended  mason  ; 
he  made  shoes ;  he  crawled  under  old 
buildings  for  suitable  earth  to  make  salt- 
petre, then  in  great  demand.  A  day  in 
field  or  forest  was  followed  by  a  night  of 
study.  He  took  his  Greek  grammar  to  the 
hayfield,  and  contrived  now  and  then  to 
glance  into  it.  Every  spare  moment  was 
given  to  his  books. 

Having  become  a  Christian,  as  he 
hoped,  while  in  Mansfield,  he  entered  Col- 
lege with  the  ministry  definitely  m  view. 
His  course  at  Yale  was  marked  by  the 
same  courage,  industry  and  fidelity  to 
duty,  which  he  had  previously  displayed. 
He  acquitted  himself  well  as  a  scholar, 
while  paying  all  his  own  expenses. 
Though  never  able  to  see  more  than  one 
quarter  ahead,  he  did  not  run  in  debt ;  and 
all  the  help  he  received  from  relations  was 
one  ten  shilling  piece,  and  one  old  holland 
shirt.  Independent  in  spirit,  he  never  ap- 
plied to  the  wealthy  and  benevolent  to  as- 
sist him  because  he  was  fitting  for  the 
ministry.  During  his  senior  year  he  com- 
menced the  study  of  divinity  with  Dr. 
Jonathan  Edwards,  occasionally  also  con- 
sulting Pres.  Stiles  and  the  Bev.  Mr. 
Mather  on  theological  questions.  He 
says,  "  I  soon  found  my  instructors  did  not 
in  all  things  think  alike,  I  strove,  there- 
fore, to  search  the  Scriptures  and  judge 
for  myself,"  Independent  in  thinking,  as 
in  action  !  He  continued  the  study  of  the- 
ology after  graduation,  and  was  licensed  to 
preach  at  Durham,  in  May,  1781.  Thus 
he  reached  the  goal  toward  which  he  had 
long  been  pressing  his  way  through  great 
difficulties.  He  was  a  self-made  man,  as 
most  men  are  who  accomplish  much  for 
the  world.  Colleges  and  seminaries  do 
not  turn  out  complete  men,  as  machines 
do  pins  and  spools.  The  man  is  what  he 
makes  himself,  under  God,  by  the  wise  use 
of  his  advantages  and  disadvantages.  The 
obstacles  which  Mr.  Nott  surmounted  were 
the  very  things  that  fitted  him  for  his  life- 
work.  But  for  them  he  might  have  at- 
tained a  broader  culture  and  a  more  exact 
scholarship  than  he  ever  possessed  ;  but  he 
could  hardly  have  had  such  an  independ- 
ent and  self-reliant  spirit,  such  soundness 
of  judgment,  such  readiness  of  resources, 
or  the  fervent  faith  and  zeal  which  distin- 
guished him.  He  who  presses  through  so 
many  difficulties  to  preach  the  Gospel 
makes  sure  hia  calling  to  preach  it. 


Mr.  Nott  first  visited  Franklin,  (then 
Norwich  "West  Farms),  in  the  autumn  of 
1781,  His  first  sermon,  on  the  text,  "I 
ask  therefore  for  what  intent  ye  have  sent 
for  wie,"  made  a  deep  impression.  The 
people  said,  "that  is  the  man  for  us;" 
but  he  did  not  say,  "  this  is  the  parish 
for  me."  Certainly,  it  was  not  then  an 
attractive  field  of  labor.  It  had  contribu- 
ted largely  in  men  and  money  for  the  Bev- 
olutionary  war  ;  the  people  were  burdened 
with  debt;  school  houses  were  closed;  the 
farms  run  to  weeds.  Mr.  Ellis,  the  late 
pastor,  had  been  an  army  chaplain.  In 
consequence.  Sabbath  worship  had  been 
much  interrupted  ;  discipline  was  relaxed ; 
the  half-way  covenant  had  wrought  its 
mischief ;  and  the  tone  of  piety  was  low. 
When  Mr.  Nott  received  a  call  he  hesitated 
to  accept  it.  Fletcher,  of  Madely,  is  said 
to  have  declined  the  living  of  Durham,  "be- 
cause there  was  too  much  money  and  too 
little  labor,"  Mr.  Nott  had  no  occa- 
sion to  hesitate  for  such  reasons.  The 
salary  of  $333  34  was  likely  to  prove  small 
enough,  and  the  work  arduous.  The 
Franklin  people  were  remarkably  "inde- 
pendent in  their  feelings."  They  had 
often  boasted  that  no  one  could  ever  lead 
the  society.  The  two  previous  ministers 
had  in  truth  been  unable  to  do  this,  and 
both  had  been  dismissed ;  a  sad  and  omi- 
nous fact !  The  new  candidate  was  also  as 
independent  as  any  one.  Here  then  was  a 
question :  if  he  came  to  Franklin  should 
he  lead  or  be  led  ?  Soon  after  Wm.  Bob- 
inson  had  accepted  a  call  to  Southington, 
a  friend  said  to  him,  ' '  So  you  are  about  to 
be  settled  oyer  the  people  of  Southington," 
"  Yes,"  he  replied,  "  if  I  am  settled  there, 
I  shall  be  settled  ovei-  and  not  under 
them."  It  took  the  Franklin  people  some 
years  to  find  out  that  Samuel  Nott  was 
settled  over  them.  They  chafed  at  times, 
!  like  a' colt  first  harnessed.  But  the  reins 
were  held  with  a  strong  and  steady  hand, 
and  harmony  and  spiritual  prosperity  fol- 
I  lowed.  He  was  ordained  in  March,  1782, 
I  and  for  sixty-seven  years  jjerformed  all  the 
I  ministerial  duties  of  the  parish.  Then  on 
the  settlement  of  a  colleague,  he  entii'ely 
gave  up  pastoral  labor.  His  coming  was 
like  the  infusion  of  healthy  blood  into  the 
veins  of  one  wasted  by  disease.  All 
caught  the  infection  of  his  energy  and  de- 
votion. But  though  his  soul  was  on  fire 
with  zeal,  he  was  physically  so  feeble  that 
no  one  anticipated  for  him  a  long  career. 
When  Staupitz  first  urged  Luther  to 
preach,  he  excused  himself ;  "  I  cannot  do 
it,  I  shall  die  in  three  months.  Indeed,  I 
cannot  do  it,"     "Well,  Sir  Martin,"  said 


DK.    NOTT. 


Staupitz,  "  if  you  must  die,  you  must ;  but 
remember  that  they  need  good  heads  up 
yonder  too.  So  preach,  man,  preach ;  and 
then  live  or  die,  as  it  happens."  In  this 
spirit,  Samuel  Nott,  having  worked  with 
all  his  might,  and  almost  ruined  his  con- 
stitution, in  getting  ready  to  preach,  was 
determined  to  do  it,  whether  he  lived  or 
died.  His  health  gradually  improved,  and 
during  sixty  years  he  was  detained  from 
the  house  of  God  by  indisposition  but 
eleven  Sabbaths.  Throughout  his  long 
ministry,  his  zeal  for  the  good  of  his  flock 
never  tired.  Though  having  a  farm  to 
manage,  without  which  he  could  hardly 
have  supported  his  large  family,  burdened 
with  many  domestic  afflictions,  and  occu- 
pied much  of  the  time  in  teaching,  he  al- 
lowed nothing  to  interfere  with  the  punc- 
tual performance  of  pastoral  duty.  Rest 
and  ease  were  words  not  in  his  vocabulary. 
His  active  mind  was  ever  planning  new  ex- 
pedients to  promote  the  good  of  his  parish. 
His  declaration,  "I  constantly  studied  to 
be  useful,"  is  the  key-note  of  his  whole 
life.  He  regularly  catechized  the  children, 
and  also  formed  a  theological  class  among 
the  young  people,  whose  members  wrote 
essays  upon  subjects  proposed  by  him, 
and  then  listened  to  his  comments.  Could 
the  young  people  of  the  present  day  be  in- 
duced to  leave  their  magazines  and  novels, 
to  prepare  theological  essays  under  a  pas- 
tor's guidance  ?  Dr.  Nott's  labors  to  im- 
prove the  schools  greatly  promoted  the 
intelligence  of  the  two  entire  generations 
that  grew  up  during  his  ministry.  He 
also  gave  instruction  to  many  of  the  youth, 
in  his  own  house.  Forty  young  men  he 
fitted  for  college, — twenty  of  them  his  own 
parishioners.  Not  a  few  of  these  rose  to 
positions  of  distinguished  usefulness,  in 
the  ministry  and  other  professions.  Con- 
cerning this  portion  of  his  life-work  he 
pertinently  said,  "As  a  little  wheel  in 
mechanism  sometimes  puts  in  motion  one 
much  larger,  I  have  been  instrumental  in 
the  hands  of  Divine  Providence  in  bring- 
ing forward  into  public  life  some  persons 
who  have  given  a  far  wider  spread  to 
knowledge  than  I  was  ever  able  to  do." 
How  many  such  little  wheels  there  have 
been  in  the  country  parishes  of  New  Eng- 
land !  Dr.  Nott  also  started  a  pubhc  li- 
brary, which  had  an  excellent  influence  on 
the  culture  of  the  community.  It  did  not 
contain  much  light  reading;  but  those 
■who  spent  the  winter  evenings  over  its 
solid  volumes  might  safely  be  matched,  in 
intelligence  and  strength  of  mind,  with  the 
young  people  who  draw  the  latest  stories 
from  our  modem  libraries. 


In  the  pulpit  Dr.  Nott  had  an  eminently 
dignified  and  impressive  manner,  a  ready 
utterance,  and  an  evident  sincerity  which 
won  the  hearts  of  his  hearers.  He  spoke 
as  one  deeply  imbued  with  reverence  for 
truth,  and  in  earnest  to  win  souls.  His 
reading  of  the  Scriptures  illumined  their 
meaning,  and  in  prayer  he  was  remarkably 
direct  and  pertinent.  He  led  the  people 
near  to  God.  His  sermons  were  plain  and 
practical.  He  could  not  be  called  an  orig- 
inal thinker,  nor  a  critical  scholar ;  but  his 
way  of  putting  things  was  thoroughly  his 
own.  His  mind  was  practical  rather  than 
speculative.  "  It  has  never  been  my  aim," 
said  he,  "to  be  a  dry  metaphysical 
preacher."  Every  sermon  had  an  object, 
and  was  well  calculated  to  hit  the  mark. 
Intimately  acquainted  with  all  parts  of  the 
Scriptures,  he  quoted  them  very  aptly; 
and  his  hearers,  however  little  they  read 
the  Bible  at  home,  could  not  remain  un- 
familiar with  its  language  or  its  doctrines. 
His  style  was  enlivened  by  pithy,  senten- 
tious remarks.  A  sample  is  his  succinct 
apology  on  printing  a  funeral  discourse, 
"Funeral  sermons,  like  Jonah's  gourd, 
usually  come  up  in  the  night."  His  un- 
written discourses  were  esteemed  the  best. 
As  he  warmed  with  his  subject  his  manner 
became  highly  impressive ;  his  imagination 
kindled ;  new  thoughts  and  illustrations 
flashed  from  his  lips  ;  his  sentences  grew 
crisp  and  incisive ;  he  showed  powers 
akin  to  those  of  the  author  of  the  funeral 
discourse  upon  Alexander  Hamilton. 

He  preached  also  very  wisely  from  house 
to  house,  not  by  long,  set,  solemn  talks, 
j  but  sermons  in  a  sentence,  adapted  with 
I  keen  insight  and  ready  sympathy  to  the 
I  wants  of  his  people.  In  the  conduct  of 
i  cases  of  discipline,  some  of  which  were 
delicate  and  protracted,  he  showed  great 
tact ;  patient  and  candid  towards  all  men ; 
skillfully  sifting  truth  from  falsehood ;  al- 
laying animosities ;  yielding  in  non-essen- 
tials, but  firm  as  a  rock  where  a  principle 
was  involved.  His  influence  promoted 
harmony  and  good  feeling  among  the  peo- 
ple. It  is  often  an  important  function  of 
a  minister  to  play  the  part  of  a  barrel- 
hoop, — to  keep  things  together  when  they 
have  a  strong  tendency  to  fall  apart.  The 
value  of  this  faculty  is  sometimes  mani- 
fested when  a  wise  minister,  after  a  long 
pastorate,  is  removed  by  death.  The 
hoops  having  burst,  the  cask  falls  to 
pieces.  Dr.  Nott  repeatedly  rendered 
great  service  to  the  church  by  steadily 
holding  fast  his  position,  when  many  an- 
other minister  would  have  quit  the  field. 
Every  year  he  grew  in  the  love  of  his  peo- 


DB.    NOTT. 


pie,  and  in  hia  power  to  benefit  them. 
Genial  and  courteous  in  manner,  cheerful 
in  temperament,  affable  towards  the  young, 
sympathizing  with  the  old,  he  carried  sun- 
shine with  him  into  every  home,  the  sun- 
shine of  Christian  truth  and  love.  "He 
was  a  man,"  said  Dr.  McEwen,  "  whose 
social  affections  never  wore  out.  Rarely 
has  a  very  aged  minister  lived  who,  hav- 
ing buried  his  generation,  could  be  so 
social,  so  happy,  and  so  useful  among  sur- 
vivors." The  warmth  and  kindliness  of 
his  affections,  as  well  as  his  sound  judg- 
ment and  wide  experience,  made  his  com- 
panionship especially  valuable  to  his 
brother  ministers.  Until  his  ninety-fourth 
year  he  was  always  in  his  place  at  their 
meetings,  and  always  in  good  season.  If 
Dr.  Nott  was  not  on  hand  at  the  hour,  the 
brethren  concluded  that  their  watches 
must  be  too  fast.  So  it  was  everywhere. 
For  punctuality  he  might  be  ranked  with 
Gen.  Washington  himself. 

Much  of  his  success  was  due  to  the 
power  of  that  pure  character,  which  con- 
stantly illustrated  the  Gospel  that  he 
preached.  It  is  not  only  the  weight  of  the 
hammer,  but  the  nerve  and  muscle  of  the 
arm  that  wields  it,  that  determines  the 
force  of  the  blow.  In  reading  a  sermon  of 
Dr.  Nott's  we  might  wonder  somewhat  at 
his  pulpit  power.  It  was  largely  in  the 
man  that  uttered  it,  whom  all  knew  and 
felt  to  be  a  worthy  representative  of  the 
Gospel  that  he  commended  to  their  ac- 
ceptance. Says  La  Bruyere,  **  There  are 
men  so  holy  that  their  very  character  is 
sufficient  to  persuade.  They  appear,  and 
the  whole  assembly  which  is  to  hear  them 
is,  as  it  were,  already  impressed  and  con- 
vinced by  their  presence.  The  discourse 
which  they  deliver  does  the  rest."  Is  not 
here  one  argument  for  long  pastorates  ? 
A  man  cannot  become  thoroughly  known 
in  five,  or  even  ten  years.  Time  has  many 
tests  of  the  spirit  that  is  in  us.  The  influ- 
ence of  character,  like  the  oak,  grows 
slowly ;  but  when  grown  it  is  strong.  The 
longer  a  faithful,  godly  minister  remains 
in  a  community,  the  greater  the  weight 
which  his  established  character  gives  to 
every  word  and  action.  This  power  is 
largely  lost  in  the  churches  through  the 
brevity  of  our  pastorates.  In  his  domes- 
tic life  Dr.  Nott  had  many  trials  ;  sickness 
and  death  often  entered  his  dwelling. 
With  unusual  serenity  he  passed  through 


such  scenes,  maintaining  habitually  that 
rare  qualification  for  usefulness — "a  heart 
at  leisure  from  itseK."  But  he  had  also 
many  blessings.  He  was  the  center  of  a 
wide  circle  of  cultivated  and  refined 
friends.  Two  sons  he  educated  for  the 
ministry ;  three  other  clergymen  married 
into  his  family.  He  joyfully  gave  up  his 
oldest  son  as  one  of  the  pioneer  band  sent 
by  the  American  Board  to  India ;  and  it 
was  a  severe  trial  that  his  son  was  oom- 
pelled  to  return  home.  He  loved  the 
church  and  kingdom  of  Christ  with  all  his 
heart,  and  actively  promoted  the  benevolent 
enterprises  of  his  day.  He  participated  in 
the  formation  of  the  Connecticut  Bible  and 
Home  Missionary  societies ;  was  long  a 
president  of  the  former  and  trustee  of  the 
latter,  and  very  assiduous  in  the  perform- 
ance of  his  duties. 

Most  ministers  who  have  spent  fifty 
years  in  active  service  are  disposed  to  lay 
aside!  the  armor  and  rest.  Not  so  with  Dr. 
Nott.  He  had  no  thought  of  such  a  thing. 
When  upwards  of  ninety  years  old  he 
could  hardly  realize  that  he  was  less  capa- 
ble than  formerly  of  fulfilling  the  duties  of 
the  ministry.  His  natural  force  was 
abated,  but  not  his  enthusiasm  for  the 
Master's  work.  His  half-century  sermon 
contained  no  hint  of  resigning.  In  his 
sixtieth  anniversary  sermon,  which  was 
"most  affectionately  addressed  to  the 
children,  grand-children,  and  great-grand- 
children of  those  who  invited  me  to  settle 
with  them  in  the  Gospel  ministry,"  he 
said,  ' '  I  am  still  in  health  and  comfort, 
and  able  to  blow  the  Gospel  trump  with  a 
good  degree  of  vigor,  and  to  perform  stead- 
ily the  common  ministerial  duties,  in  sea- 
son and  out  of  season,  by  night  and  by 
day,  at  home  and  abroad,  in  fair  weather 
or  foul. "  On  his  ninety-third  birthday  he 
wrote  in  his  jouraal,  "  Thus  far  the  Lord 
hath  helped  me.  What  is  before  me  he 
only  knows.  I  wish  to  be  up  and  doing. " 
His  was  a  spirit  that  could  sympathize 
with  that  veteran  home  missionary  who, 
after  fifty-one  years  of  labor  on  the  frontier 
said,  "  if  it  should  please  God  to  renew 
my  term  of  office,  I  would  joyfully  accept 
a  commission  to  preach  the  Gospel  clear 
up  to  the  day  of  judgment."  Though  dead 
"  he  yet  speaketh  ;  "  and  many  years  will 
yet  elapse  before  his  influence  will  cease 
to  be  felt  in  the  parish  where  he  labored 
so  long  and  so  faithfully. 


REV.  ABEL  McEWEl^,  D.  D. 


Sketch  of  Rev.  Abel  McEwen,  D.  D. 

THE  SUCCESSFUL  PASTOR. 

BY  REV.   SAMUEL  G.   WILLARD. 

This  subject  was  assigned  me  by  the 
^Standing  Committee,  with  the  intimation 
that  the  Rev.  Abel  McEwen,  D.  D.,  fifty- 
four  years  pastor  of  the  First  Church  in 
New  London,  should  be  the  central  figure 
of  the  picture. 

The  topic  is  timely  because  of  the 
growing  brevity  of  pastorates  in  New 
England.  In  fifty  years  great,  and  in 
gome  respects  undesirable  changes,  have 
been  wrought  in  the  habits  of  the  churches. 
Reasons  should  be  weighty  to  reconcile 
one  to  this  revolution,  and  justify  the 
opinion,  that  now  long  pastorates  ought 
to  be  the  exception  and  not  the  rule.  "We 
have  come  to  a  period  in  our  history  when 
it  is  stated  on  high  authority,  that  nearly 
two-thirds  of  our  churches  are  without 
settled  pastors,  and  that  thirteen  hundred, 
•or  fourteen  hundred  ministers  are  not  in- 
stalled.* And  might  it  not  be  added  that 
many  of  the  pastors  feel  hardly  less  secure 
of  continuing  in  their  places,  than  the 
coUege  student  who  has  had  two  distinct 
"  warnings  "  and  sees  the  marks  mount- 
ing up  towards  a  third  ? 

A  statement  may  indicate  the  greatness 
of  the  change  referred  to.  In  1825,  only 
fifty-two  years  ago,  Connecticut  had, 
as  I  count,  thirty-nine  Congregational 
pastors,  perhaps  more  or  above  one 
sixth  of  the  whole,  who  had  then,  or  who 
before  their  pastoral  relation  ended  had 
ministered  to  the  same  church  forty  years 
luid  upward.  Many  of  these  exceeded 
'fifty  years,  and  some,  as  Dr.  Nott,  and 
I)r.  Noah  Porter,  a  much  longer  period. 

•  Bey.  H.  M.  Dexter,  D.  D. 


In  New  London  county  at  that  time  were 
five  pastors,  whose  terms  of  service  av- 
eraged at  their  close  above  fifty-eight 
years.  Mr.  Tuttle,  the  youngest  of  these, 
died  in  1864.  It  is  significant  that  of  these 
thirty -nine,  only  one,  Dr.  Bacon,  was  or- 
dained after  1824.  Though  long  pasto- 
rates were  common  fifty  years  ago,  few 
pastors  are  now  where  they  were  thirty 
or  even  twenty  years  ago.  Not  one  in 
thirty  of  the  Congregational  pastors  of 
Connecticut  have  been  in  their  present 
field  twenty  years.*  Why  this  change, 
and  what  its  bearing  upon  the  future  of 
the  churches,  and  the  efficiency  of  the 
ministry  this  is  not  the  place  to  discuss. 
But  it  is  believed,  that  for  several  reasons 
a  nomadic  ministry  is  less  influential  than 
one  accustomed  to  abide  through  good 
report,  and  through  evil  report,  and  cul- 
tivate the  same  field  "from  youth  till 
hoary  age  ; "  ever  endeavoring  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  many  generations.  Hence 
it  may  aid  to  regain  such  pastorates  ;  if 
we  study  the  characteristics  of  some  of 
the  fathers  whose  faces  we  have  seen, 
and  whose  words  of  wisdom  are  yet 
treasured  in  our  memories. 

Fifty  years  ago,  Abel  McEwen  had  been 
above  a  score  of  years  pastor  of  the  First 
church  in  New  London.  He  was  ordained 
the  20th  of  October,  1806,  and  continued 
there  till  his  death  the  7th  of  September, 
1860.  Above  four  years  before  that  time 
he  had  been  released  from  the  active 
duties  of  his  pastorate,  and  Rev.  Thomas 
P.  Field,  D.  D.,  was  installed  as  his  col- 

*  The  Minutes  of  1877  give  six  ministera,  (two 
of  whom  have  since  resigned,  three  others  of 
whom  are  marked  "  emeritus,'')  who  had  been 
thirty  years  or  more  in  their  places ;  and  only  six 
I  others,  and  one  of  them  an  acting  pastor,  who 
had  been  above  twenty  years  in  their  praaeut 
I  field. 


8 


DR.    M'KWEM. 


league.  Why  this  half  century  of  ser- 
vice? It  was  not  because  no  changes 
occurred  in  his  parish.  New  London  had 
incrceksed  from  a  village  of  about  three 
thousand  inhabitants  with  little  commerce, 
steamboats,  manufactories  and  many 
to  a  city  of  ten  thousand,  with  railroads, 
ships  in  distant  seas.  A  Second  Congre- 
gational church  was  formed  in  1835,  which 
grew  rapidly.  Other  denominations  in- 
creased their  numbers  and  their  churches. 
Clearly  Mr.  McEwen  did  not  retain  his 
iwsition,  simply  because  of  the  inertia  of 
his  people,  though  their  conservative  and 
liberal  habits  were  favorable  to  per- 
manency. Nor  was  he  retained  out  of 
respect  to  a  custom  of  the  church.  In 
the  one  hundred  and  fifty-five  years  that 
preceded  his  settlement,  the  church  had 
eight  ministers,  only  three  of  whom 
died  in  office.  One  served  forty-five 
years  ;  but  the  average  time  of  the  eight 
was  less  than  sixteen  years.  Recognizing 
then  that,  as  are  all  pastors,  he  was  a 
man  under  the  authority  of  one,  who  at 
his  pleasure  says  to  his  servants,  "go," 
and  "  come,"  we  may  seek  in  Mr.  McEwen 
and  in  his  manner  of  work  the  reasons  for 
his  long  pastorate. 

Observing  his  qualities,  we  notice  at  the 
outset  as  most  congregations  do  in  a  can- 
didate, his  stature,  voice,  features,  ex- 
pression, and  general  bearing.  As  the 
young  minister  stood  in  their  pulpit  for 
the  first  time,  the  New  London  people  saw 
a  man  tall,  slender,  with  dark  hair,  which 
in  his  later  years  might  turn  to  an  iron 
gray,  but  would  always  be  abundant ;  eyes 
that  looked  at  and  into  men  ;  an  expressive, 
benevolent  countenance  ;  movements  and 
gestures  quick,  decisive  yet  dignified 
and  courteous  manners  ;  and  they  heard  a 
pleasant,  clear,  commanding  voice.  Per- 
haps they  had  learned  that  he  was  from 
Winchester,  Connecticut ;  the  son  of  a 
farmer  in  easy  circumstances,  and  a  dea- 
con in  the  church,  who  sought  for  his 
children  the  favor  of  God  before  earthly 
riches  ;  a  graduate  of  Yale  with  the  high- 
est honors  of  his  class  two  years  before, 
(1804) ;  a  student  in  theology  with  Pres- 
ident Dwight,  whose  friendship  and  con- 
fidence he  enjoyed  ;  and  that  he  had  been 
for  nearly  a  year  a  licenciate  of  Litchfield 
North  Association.  With  this  favorable 
introduction  they  may  have  heard  ser- 
mons, containing  clear  and  logical  state- 
ments of  doctrine  and  duty,  so  constructed 
as  to  gain  assent  and  win  men  to  think  of 
the  truth  ;  while  they  did  not  weary  with 
a  long  "improvement,"  but,  like  Matthew 
Henry's  commentary,  made  the  "appli- 
cation" as  the  preacher  went  on.  Still 
further,    they     found     that,    in   society 


Mr.  McEwen  was  genial  in  manner,  re- 
markably gifted  in  conversation,  possessed 
of  a  tenacious  and  ready  memory,  a  won- 
derful power  of  recalling  faces  and  names, 
cheerful  always,  witty  often,  able  to  en- 
tertain the  young  with  instructive  anec- 
dotes related  with  dramatic  power,  or  to 
enter  into  argument  with  older  and 
thoughtful  men  on  the  great  questions  of 
religion  or  civil  government.  As  their 
acquaintance  increased  they  saw  that  hi» 
vivacity  out  of  the  pulpit  and  his  gravity 
and  solemnity  in  preaching  were  attended 
by  prudence  in  speech,  patience  in  diffi- 
culties, quickness  to  discern  the  pecu- 
liarities and  opinions  of  men,  and  a  happy 
capability  of  adapting  himself  to  them. 
An  illustration  of  this  once  occurred, 
when,  believing  that  boxes  inside  the 
church  near  the  doors  for  religious  offer- 
ings would  be  useful,  he  mentally  decided 
that  no  opposition  would  be  made  to  the 
project,  unless  by  one  excellent  man,  whO' 
usually  preferred  such  plans  as  he  himself 
suggested.  At  a  convenient  time,  Mr. 
McEwen  sought  an  interview  with  him, 
and  during  a  prolonged  conversation  oni 
miscellaneous  subjects  spoke  about  the 
boxes,  as  if  they  were  the  brother's  own. 
proposal ;  and  expatiated  on  the  probable 
advantages  to  be  derived  from  them. 
The  good  man,  though  probably  not  quite 
able  to  remember  when  and  where  he 
suggested  the  idea  to  his  pastor,  accepted 
it  heartily.  The  boxes  were  procured, 
and  he  took  charge  of  the  offerings,  and 
at  one  time  of 'a  boy,  whom  by  watching, 
he  detected  in  pilfering  their  contents. 

For  nineteen  years  Mr.  McEwen  pre- 
decessor had  been  quietly  suppressing 
vital  truth  regarding  the  atonement, 
and  the  divinity  of  Christ,  and  preaching 
such  a  gospel  as  he  was  able  without 
that.  Mr.  McEwen  did  not  proclaim  war 
against  this  heresy,  and  avoided  exciting 
opposition.  So  temperately,  so  wisely 
and  withal  so  firmly  did  he  present  the 
doctrihes  of  the  New  Testament,  that  the 
truth  grew  mightily  in  men's  minds  and 
prevailed. 

Before  entering  college  he  had  passed 
through  a  deep  and  pungent  religious 
experience.  The  occasion  of  his  awaken- 
ing affords  a  new  illustration  of  the  vari- 
ety of  means  by  which  God  calls  men  into 
His  kingdom.  His  early  inclination  had. 
been  for  law.  But  his  father  was  unwil- 
ling to  help  him  to  an  education,  only  to 
gratify  what  seemed  to  him  the  worldly 
ambition  of  his  son.  Having  gone  to 
Hartford  to  hear  an  "  Election  sermon," 
which  occasioned  a  great  gathering  of 
ministers,  from  far  and  near  :  as  the  son  of 
a  deacon  who  might  be  supposed  to  know, 
he  was  questioned  by  a  Massachusetts 
minister  concerning  the  revival  then  pro- 


DR.     M'EWEN. 


gressing  in  Connecticut.  His  mortifica- 
tion in  consequence  of  his  ignorance,  gave 
conscience  an  opportunity  to  cry  out. 
After  much  tribulation  and  great  search- 
ings  of  heart  he  found  peace.  Then  his 
father  was  ready  to  send  him  to  college. 
Revivals  remarkable  and  far-reaching  in 
their  effects  occurred  in  New  Haven  dur- 
ing his  residence  in  that  city.  The  preach- 
ing of  Dr.  Dwight  and  of  Moses  Stuart 
made  a  deep  and  ineffaceable  impression. 
He  came  to  New  London  prepared  to  be  a 
leader  in  religious  movements.  He  found 
many  tares  growing  with  the  wheat. 
The  tone  of  society  and  of  the  church 
was  worldly.  Of  household  worship  there 
was  little,  of  pleasure-seeking  much  ;  one 
form  of  which  was  a  kind  of  weekly  fes- 
tival, very  largely  attended  by  respect- 
able people  on  Saturday  evening,  though 
that  was  generally  regarded  as  a  part  of 
the  Sabbath.  Gambling  and  drinking 
prolonged  the  entertainment  till  near  the 
dawn  of  day.  With  some  anxiety  he  be- 
gan to  attack  prevalent  vices.  Having 
stored  up  with  care  a  magazine  of  facts, 
a  bold  and  well-directed  sermon  demol- 
ished the  festival.  After  a  time  men  as 
well  as  women  began  to  gather  for  relig- 
ious worship  in  the  evening,  at  the  sound 
of  the  church-bell :  though  some  objected 
to  its  ringing,  lest  it  should  be  mistaken 
for  a  fire  alarm. 

The  next  year,  1807,  a  revival  began.f 
Others  followed.  Above  seven  hundred 
were  added  to  the  church  during  his  pas- 
torate, though  the  earlier  were  more 
fruitful  than  the  later  years.  Thus  his 
hands  were  strengthened  by  those  who 
were  led  to  Christ  by  his  ministry. 

Another  important  element  in  Mr. 
McE wen's  success  was  his  interest  in 
neighboring  churches  and  parishes.  It  is 
natural  for  those  just  entering  the  min- 
istry to  suppose  their  work  is  to  be  almost 
entirely  in  their  own  parish.  But  most 
ministers,  whose  faithful  cultivation  of 
their  own  fields  has  been  crowned  by 
the  divine  blessing,  find  that  while  there 
is  no  diocesan  bishop  in  the  Congrega- 
tional order,  there  is  abundance  of  work 
to  be  done  out  of  one's  own  parish,  in  which 
for  various  reasons  they  must  beai-  a 
hand.  The  Council  and  the  right  hand 
of  fellowship  at  his  ordination  imply  that 
the  pastor  is  to  have  a  care  also  for  neigh- 
boring churches,  and  especially  for  such 
as  are  v/eak  ;  if  at  any  time  they  should 
be  without  a  pastor,  or  discouraged  be- 
cause of  losses  or  adversaries. 

Dr.  McEwen's  position  at  New  London, 
one  of  the  county  towns,  his  reputation 
as  a  gentleman  and  an  earnest  successful 
pastor,  all  combined  with  his  natural  gifts 

t  For  this  I  am  indebted  to  Key.  W.  H.  Moore. 


and  character  to  secure  for  him  the  ac- 
quaintance and  confidence  of  the  churches, 
and  of  good  men  in  various  parts  of  the 
country.  But  he  saw  with  grief  and  anx- 
iety that  the  portion  of  the  Lord's  vine- 
yard around  New  London  was  waste  and 
desolate.  In  his  own  words  (half  century 
sermon),  "  When  I  was  ordained  here  in 
1806  ;  I  was  the  only  pastor  of  a  Congre- 
gational church,  on  a  territory  in  Con- 
necticut of  fifty  miles  in  length,  by  twelve 
in  width.  Eleven  large  contiguous  parishes 
on  the  line  of  Rhode  Island,  thence  to  the 
western  boundary  of  East  Lyme,  thence 
northward  to  the  southern  line  of  Col- 
chester, were  destitute  of  Congregational 
ministers."  "  No  prospect  or  hope  existed 
that  any  of  these  parishes,  Stonington 
excepted,  would  spontaneously  and  un- 
aided obtain  a  settled  ministry."  Of  these 
parishes  he  says,  '  Groton  had  been  va- 
cant thirteen  years,  Ledyard  thirty-nine, 
East  Lyme  sixty-two.  North  Stonington 
sixty-four,  Salem  seventy -four,  and  Ches- 
terfield had  never  had  a  minister,  and  its 
house  of  worship  seventy  years  old  had 
fallen,  from  decay. ' 

Rev.  Ira  Hart  was  settled  in  Stonington 
in  1808,  and  Rev.  Timothy  Tuttle  began 
his  fifty-three  years  pastorate  in  Ledyard 
and  Groton  in  1811.  In  1815,  Mr.  Hart 
was  at  Mr.  McEwen's  house,  and  there  the 
plan  of  the  Connecticut  Home  Missionary 
Society  was  devised.  The  next  year,  in 
accordance  with  the  report  of  a  Commit- 
tee appointed  on  a  memorial  form  the 
New  London  Association,  that  Society  was 
vitalized  by  the  General  Association  at  it» 
annual  meeting  in  New  Haven.  Mr, 
McE  wen  had  not  then  been  a  pastor  ten 
years,  but  his  interest  in  the  feeble 
churches  of  this  State  and  his  broad  plan 
for  their  assistance,  evinced  his  fitness  for 
his  position.  How  he  followed  up  the 
work  one  or  two  instances  may  illustrate. 
Mr.  McEwen  had  aided  one  of  the  long 
vacant  parishes,  which  was  in  a  state  of 
suspended  animation  and  needed  a  start- 
ling awakening,  to  engage  temporarily  a 
young  man  whom  he  thought  equal  to  the 
task.  After  three  weeks  he  met  a  mem- 
ber of  the  parish  and  on  inquiring  after 
the  young  minister,  was  greatly  amused 
by  the  energetic  reply,  "Oh,  he  has 
stirred  up  all  the  young  people  ;  we  shall 
be  obliged  to  settle  a  minister  :  but,  sir,  he 
won't  do."  "Why  not?"  "  Why  sir,  he 
is  a  despot  sudden  man."  At  the  close  of 
the  year,  the  church,  as  Dr.  McEweu  had 
hoped,  was  in  a  condition  to  settle  and 
retain  a  pastor.  Once  when  he  had  ex- 
changed, a  young  man  came  to  him  at  the 
close  of  the  service,  and  introduced  him- 
self as  a  school-teacher,  from  North 
Stonington,  who  desired  an  education 
and  to  fit  for    the  ministry  ;  but  needed 


10 


D\.     m'eWEN. 


counsel  and  some  aid.  The  church  in 
North  Stonington,  nearly  eighty  years 
earlier,  had  been  rent  asunder  and  weU- 
nigh  destroyed  by  the  formation  of  a  Sep- 
arate church.  At  once  it  occurred  to  Mr. 
McEwen  that  if  this  young  man,  whose 
father  belonged  to  the  Separate  church, 
could  be  fitted  for  the  ministry,  he  would 
be  the  man  to  go  to  the  old  church, 
and  re-unite  the  two.  And  so  it  came  to 
pass.  There  and  elsewhere,  mostly  in 
NewLondon  county,that  minister*  served 
the  churches  faithfully,  with  many  ev- 
idences of  the  divine  approval  till  a  little 
before  his  death,  when  he  was  upwards 
of  fourscore,  having  been  installed  over 
his  last  charge  when  he  was  seventy-six 
years  old. 

At  the  beginning  of  Mr.  McEwen's  min- 
istry the  churches  had  no  regular  meetings 
for  conference,  and  saw  little  of  each 
other  except  at  occasional  Councils.  As 
early  as  1813  the  New  London  Associ- 
ation took  steps  towards  forming  a  Con- 
sociation. In  this  movement,  to  one 
reading  between  the  lines  of  the  record, 
it  appears  that  Mr.  McEwen  was  a  leader. 
Dr.  Nott  was  the  first  moderator,  and  Mr. 
McEwen  was  the  first  clerk  of  the  Consoci- 
ation. The  manner  in  which  he  recorded 
the  unanimous  vote  at  the  meeting  which 
adopted  the  Constitution,  shows  no  little 
exuberance  of  spirit.  The  Consociation 
for  nearly  a  half  a  century  was  useful, 
and  while  Mr.  McEwen  lived  was  a  power 
in  the  county,  promoting  order  and  vigor 
in  the'  churches,  and  aiding  to  secure  in- 
telligent and  permanent  pastors.  By  it 
his  personal  influence,  as  the  Moderator 
of  most  of  the  Councils,  and  as  the 
recorder  of  their  doings  was  largely 
iacreased. 

Another  element  of  strength  in  the 
character  of  Dr.  McEwen  was  his  deep 
and  intelligent  interest  in  the  ministry  of 
the  county.  He  did  more  than  any  other 
to  reorganize  and  maintain  in  efficiency 
the  monthly  meeting,  which  met  in  rota- 
tion with  the  pastors,  and  continued 
from  eleven  o'clock  on  Tuesday,  to 
eleven  o'clock  on  Wednesday.  Always 
present  and  ready  to  read  a  paper ; 
of  which  four  years  before  his  death  he 
had  written  above  four  hundred,  he  was 
the  acknowledged  leader,  though  never 
except  in  his  turn,  the  moderator.  In 
later  years,  those  who  listened  only  to  his 
sermons,  which  were  from  forty -five  min- 
utes to  an  hour  in  length,  and  neither 
by  their  matter,  or  manner  of  delivery 
calculated  to  inspire  enthusiasm,  would 
hardly  have  imagined  the  energy,  vivacity, 
keenness  and  humor,  that  were  manifest 

*  Key.  Joseph  Ayer. 


in  the  ministers'  meeting.  His  idea  of 
extemporaneous  preaching,  was  of  such 
a  performance  as  he  might  sometimes 
have  heard  fifty  years  ago  when  a  preach- 
er, who  decried  a  learned  ministry  showed 
by  his  want  of  grammar  and  logic,  that 
he  supposed  fervor  would  compensate  for 
lack  of  knowledge,  and  ignorance  for 
careful  preparation  of  material.  Hence 
he  had  a  poor  opinion  of  unwritten  ser- 
mons. And  yet  it  is  believed  that  if 
during  the  last  ten  years  of  his  active 
ministry,  he  would  have  preached  at  least 
one  half  the  time  without  writing,  and 
stopped  when  thirty  minutes  were  gone, 
his  people  would  have  been  gratified  and 
profited  by  the  change. 

As  literary  men  use  the  term,  he  was 
not  a  great  reader,  but  he  kept  himself 
informed  on  the  important  questions  of 
the  period,  especially  on  ecclesiastical  and 
political  affairs.  It  was  customary  to 
assign  him  a  subject  of  this  sort  at  the  min- 
isters' meeting,  especially  if  it  presented 
numerous  difficulties.  In  such  a  discus- 
sion, he  was  so  interesting  and  so  much  at 
home,  that  some,  who  saw  chiefly  that 
side  of  his  character,  said  it  was  a  mis- 
take he  had  not  followed  his  original 
bent  and  gone  into  law  and  politics.  What 
his  own  judgment  was,  may  be  gathered 
from  his  reply  to  an  intimate  ministerial 
friend,  who,  in  one  of  his  later  years 
inquired  of  Mr.  McEwen  ;  "  Did  you  ever 
regret  you  did  not  study  law?"  "No, 
never  for  a  moment,"  was  the  emphatic 
reply.  As  he  was  the  superior  of  his 
classmate,  John  C.  Calhoun  in  scholarship, 
he  was  by  natural  endowment  worthy  to 
have  been  his  peer  in  the  Senate,  and  had 
he  given  himself  to  law,  would  certainly 
have  distinguished  himself  in  that  pro- 
fession and  in  civil  life. 

If  any  suppose  that  a  special  liking  for 
a  fine  horse  is  a  very  modern  ministerial 
weakness,  a  half  hour  with  Dr.  McEwen 
would  have  spoiled  their  hypothesis.  He 
kept  one,  sometimes  two  horses,  till  he 
was  above  seventy,  and  the  railroad  made 
a  horse  less  a  necessity.  His  physical 
proportions  were  those  of  a  bold  rider  ; 
he  was  an  excellent  judge  of  a  horse,  and 
when  men  attempted  to  pass  him  on  the 
road,  they  sometimes  found  that  in  select- 
ing a  horse  for  his  own  use,  he  did  not 
regard  speed  as  an  objection.  His  horse 
was  more  a  tonic  to  him  than  long  vaca- 
tions to  some  ministers.  When  he  was 
above  seventy -five  years  old,  discussing 
one  day  in  the  ministers'  meeting  the  out- 
rages to  which  the  free  state  men  of  Kan- 
sas were  then  subjected,  he  wound  up'a 
stirring  sentence  by  exclaiming  with  a 
face  full  of  animation  and  flashing  eyes, 
both  arms  being  raised  above  his  tead, 


And  one  foot  lifted  as  if  he  would  stride 
forward,  and  with  the  air  of  a  general 
who  would  ride  over  all  opposers,  "I 
■would  like  to  be  there  and  have  command 
of  a  troop  of  horse." 

And  yet  Dr.  McEwen  was  with  all  his 
fondness  for  progress,  a  genuine  conser- 
vative. To  the  fugitive  slave  law  he 
counselled  at  least  passive  obedience, 
though  in  heart  he  believed  it  wrong. 
IVhen  temperance  men  began  to  turn  their 
attention  to  politics,  he  was  more  ready  to 
show  by  a  keen,  and  incisive  sermon  what 
seemed  to  him  their  lack  of  wisdom,  than 
to  advocate  temperance  in  that  way. 
]^ut  his  course  subsequently  proved  that 
lie  was  a  true  friend  of  the  cause. 

He  was  a  steadfast  friend  of  Yale  Col- 
lege, and  in  theological  matters  firmly 
attached  to  the  Yale  Divinity  School ; 
also  to  the  doctrines  as  he  had  learned  them 
from  President  Dwight.  Yet  he  was  not 
fond  of  controversy,  and  preferred  to  Uve 
at  peace  with  brethren  who  differed  from 
him.  From  1826  till  his  death  he  was  a 
member  of  the  Corporation  of  the  college, 
and  in  his  later  years  a  member  of  its 
prudential  committee. 

Perhaps  this  sketch  of  Dr.  McEwen 
as  a  pastor,  a  minister  and  a  man,  may 
be  best  completed  by  a  condensed  sum- 
mary of  his  character,  kindly  furnished 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Bond,  who  was  his  neighbor 
for  above  twenty -five  years,  in  which  is 


DR.    m'EWEH.  11 

included  "1.  Very  superior  intellectual 
endowments.  3.  Breadth  of  culture.  3. 
Originality.  4.  Industrious  application  to 
his  appropriate  work.  5.  Good  sound 
common  sense.  6.  Stable,  steadfast  piety, 
and  Christian  consistency.*' 

It  may  be  added,  that  it  was  these 
qualities  in  rare  combination,  which  by 
the  Divine  blessing  made  his  pastorate  so 
long  and  useful  to  the  end. 

But  it  ought  to  be  said,  in  justice  to  the 
excellent  and  honorable  people  of  the  First 
church  and  society  in  New  London,  that 
the  fathers  not  only  showed  their  wisdom 
in  settling  such  a  man  ;  but  the  children 
and  the  children's  children  proved  them- 
selves worthy  of  such  a  pastor.  They 
listened  to  his  faithful  admonitions,  with- 
out impatience.  They  yielded  ready  and 
deferential  attention  to  his  instruction. 
They  confided  in  his  judgment,  and  were 
with  reason  proud  of  his  eminent  gifts 
and  acquirements.  They  justly  regarded 
themselves  as  sharing  with  him  the  re- 
spect and  esteem  which  he  won  from  the 
ministers  and  Christians  of  this  State. 
And  when  his  nearly  fifty  years  of  active 
service  were  completed,  they  made  pro- 
vision for  his  comfortable  support,  and  to 
the  end  welcomed  his  occasional  ministra- 
tions in  the  pulpit  and  Conference  room. 
Thus  they  made  his  later  years  serene  and 
prosperous,  and  permitted  him,  what  has 
been  denied  to  many  a  faithful  pastor,  to 
be  buried  among  his  own  people. 


REV.  NOAH  PORTER,  D.  D. 


The  Pastorate  of  Noah  Porter,  d.  d., 
in  Farmington,  1806-1866. 

BY  PRESIDENT  NOAH  PORTEB,  D,  D. 

There  are  many  reasons  why  I  am 
the  last  person  who  should  attempt  to 
delineate  the  late  Dr.  Porter  as  a  pas- 
tor. There  are  others  why  I  am  better 
able  to  describe  him  than  the  most  of 
those  who  sur\dve  him.  I  do  not  how- 
ever propose  to  delineate  his  character 
or  estimate  his  success  by  comparing 
him  with  other  men.  "Were  I  inclined 
to  do  either,  I  should  be  deterred 
from  the  effort  by  my  own  sense  of  the 
impropriety  of  eulogizing  one  whom 
filial  duty  and  affection  do  not  forbid 
me  to  honor.  I  can  however  speak  of 
him  freely  as  a  pastor,  so  far  as  I  de- 
clare what  I  know  to  have  been  the 
controlling  aims  and  aspirations  of 
his  life.  A  son  can  scarcely  mistake 
the  purposes  and  desires  of  his  father, 
and  his  testimony  may  be  the  best 
attainable  because  it  is  founded  on  the 
closest  observation.  His  observation 
may  also  extend  to  the  energy  and 
zeal  with  which  these  controlling  aims 
have  been  expressed  in  action.  I  shall 
not  hesitate  to  speak  freely  of  the  aims 
and  purposes  which  animated  Dr.  Por- 
ter's pastoral  life,  and  also  of  the  abund- 
ance and  energy  of  his  labors. 

The  first  circumstance  that  is  wor- 
thy of  notice  in  his  pastorate  is  that 
he  was  settled  in  the  place  of  his 
birth.  One  of  his  ancestors  was 
among  the  original  proprietors  of  the 


town  in  1640,  and  one  of  the  few 
original  members  of  the  carefully 
selected  church.  His  descendants  had 
resided  in  the  town  in  every  subsequent 
generation,  and  had  been  respected  and 
trusted  in  the  community.  His  father 
at  the  time  of  his  settlement  had  been 
for  a  long  time  a  deacon  of  the  church, 
and  he  was  his  youngest  son, — the  two 
older  brothers  having  entered  the  min- 
istry long  before  and  left  the  place  of 
their  nativity.  By  an  unexpected  de- 
cision reluctantly  made  under  the  in- 
fluence of  Dr.  Porter's  predecessor, 
he  also  was  sent  to  college,  and  divert- 
ed from  the  life  of  a  farmer.  Just  a» 
he  was  ready  to  enter  upon  profess- 
ional life  this  beloved  pastor.  Rev. 
Joseph  Washburn,  died,  and  the  parish 
turned  to  his  pupil  to  supply  his  place. 
In  the  vote  by  which  he  was  invited, 
the  fact  that  he  was  "  one  of  them- 
selves "  with  whom  they  had  personal 
acquaintance,  was  urged  as  a  reason 
why  the  people  felt  justified  in  ex- 
tending to  him  their  confidence.  In 
the  judgment  of  many  in  these  days, 
and  in  ordinary  cases,  this  would  be  a 
decisive  reason  why  a  call  should  not 
be  given  to  a  man  however  worthy. 
It  is  not  for  me  to  say  whether  the 
thus  expressed  confidence  was  justified 
by  his  pastorate.  But  I  cannot  avoid 
noticing  that  this  circumstance  must 
necessarily  have  given  to  the  pastorate 
of  Dr.  Porter  a  peculiar  character  even 
j  from  its  beginning.  I  am  not  prepared 
I  to  say  that  he  was  not  thereby  exposed 


DR.     PORTER. 


13 


to  peculiar  trials.  The  admonition, 
Let  no  man  despise  thee,  must  be  es- 
pecially needful  in  every  similar  case. 
At  a  time  when  age  and  wealth  and 
official  position  asserted  themselves 
with  far  more  quiet  positiveness  than 
would  now  be  tolerated,  and  when  their 
olaims  were  unresistingly  allowed,  there 
might  have  been  special  trials  to  the 
uprightness  and  independence  of  a 
young  man  of  twenty -five,  whose  father 
was  a  farmer  and  a  deacon  in  a  com- 
munity that  was  proverbially  wealthy 
and  gay,  and  that  till  within  a  few 
years  had   been  divided  by  sharp  and 


They  simply  brought  honor  to  his  judg- 
ment and  fidelity,  without  awakening 
any  suspicion  of  covetousness.  From 
the  beginning  to  the  end  he  was  in  all 
human  and  earthly  sympathies  one 
with  his  flock.  As  the  days  of  his 
early  trials  passed  by  and  the  young 
minister  was  remembered  as  a  boy  only 
by  here  and  there  one  of  his  people;  it 
could  not  but  follow  that  the  pastor 
grew  more  attached  to  the  place  of 
his  nativity,  and  thought  more  and 
more  of  the  church  as  the  home,  and 
the  churchyard  as  the  resting-place  of 
all  his  ancestors.     One  of  the  few  in- 


long  continued   strife  on  questions  of  stances  in  which  I  remember  him  to 


doctrine  and  discipline.  How  Doctor 
Porter  met  these  trials  I  have  no  means 
of  knowing,  except  that  from  the  first 
he  had  the  loyal  support  of  all  the 
men  of  the  highest  position  in  the 
community.  To  him  and  to  them  it  was 
an  advantage  that  he  accepted  with 
more  than  usual  heartiness  his  parish  as 


have  given  expression  to  any  strong 
personal  feeling  of  local  or  romantic 
sentiment,  was  as  we  were  driving  to* 
gether  when  after  I  had  spoken  of  the 
beauty  of  the  scenery,  he  turned  to 
me  and  said,  "  Think  how  much  I  must 
delight  in  these  scenes  who  have  all 
my  life   looked   upon   these    meadows 


his  home  for  life.     Here  the  only  roots  |  and  hills,  and  walked  and  driven  along 
of  local  attachment  which  he  had  ever  these  roadways  from  my  childhood." 


known,  had  fixed  themselves  from  the 
first.     Here  he  had  a  home  of  his  own. 


It  is  very  certain  that  in  an  eminent 
sense  he  felt  a  special  and  strong  per- 


Here  on  a  very  small  scale  he  lived  the '  sonal  and  human  interest  in  the  scenes 
life  of  a  cultivator  of  the  soil,  much  to  |  of  his  pastorate  and  in  the  families 
his  vexation  and  annoyance  in  all  his ,  with  whose  history  in  other  generations 
pastorate,  because  he  thought  such  ,  he  was  familiar  by  tradition  and  per- 
duties  and  cares  interfered  with  those '  sonal  knowledge.  The  community 
which  were  higher.  The  circumstance  j  with  all  its  activity  and  life  in  the  first 
that  he  had  a  small  patrimony  was  no  half  of  his  pastorate,  was  like  that  in 
special  relief  to  his  purse,  for  his '  all  the  country  towns  of  Connecticut, 
patrimony  was  slowly  consumed  by  '  a  comparatively  stable  community,  and 
perhaps  mistaken  uuworldliness,  and '  to  a  large  extent  self-contained  and  self- 
justified  his  people  in  paying  him  a  |  dependent,  having  an  intensely  indi- 
smaller  salary  than  was  equitable,  but  vidual  life  such  as  is  now  unknown  in 
it  gave  him  in  a  sort  a  secured  posi-  city  or  country.  Ecclesiastically  it  was 
tion  of  independence  and  self-reliance.  |  one  and  unbroken ;  with  the  exception 
Such  a  position  if  it  begets  neither  ar-  of  six  or  eight  families  it  was  Congre- 
rogance  nor  distance,  certainly  sustains  gational,  and  all  the  families  attended 
that  true  manliness  in  which  the  church ,  upon  one  ministry  with  love  and  con- 
have  as  near  a  concern  as  their  pastor,  j  fidence.  The  old  church  gathered  all 
In  all  his  pastorate  of  sixty  years  he  the  church-goers  of  the  parish  into  its 
practised  a  consistent  and  independent  'ample  enclosure  every  Lord's  day,  and 
self-reliance — he  never  begged  nor 'parents  and  children  knew  but  one 
complained  for  himself.  But  it  is  impor- '  pastor  for  the  whole  community.  Far 
tant  to  observe  that  his  uuworldliness '  and  near,  in  lonely  valleys,  or  beyond 
was  never  counted  unthrift.  His 'rough  and  rocky  paths,  whether  it 
meadows  and  crops  and  cattle  never '  were  in  village  or  hamlet,  there  was 
brought    the   pastor  into    contempt  1  but  one  pastor  for  all  the  households, 


14  DR.     PORTEB. 

whatever  were  their  needs  or  longings 
for  human  or  for  Christian  guidance 
and  sympathy.  That  these  circum- 
stances were  in  one  point  of  view 
favorable  to  success  is  most  obvious. 
That  they  do  not  of  themselves  insure 
a  successful  pastorate  is  manifest  from 
the  melancholly  story  in  similar  cir- 
cumstances, of  many  a  selfish,  penurious 
or  easy  going  life  on  the  part  of  the 
pastor  with  his  animalized  and  earthly- 
minded  flock. 

Still  other  conditions  of  success 
might  be  named;  as  the  confiding 
character  of  the  people,  their  previous 
habits  and  traditions,  and  the  presence 
and  acknowledged  influence  of  men  of 
education,  integrity  and  Christian 
earnestness  in  the  congregation.  Of 
all  these  it  might  be  said  as  of  those 
already  named,  that  though  they  fa- 
vored, they  did  not  necessarily  bring 
success,  as  has  been  proved  by  sad  ex- 
amples of  disaster,  when  they  all  were 
present  and  active.  We  say  nothing 
of  the  special  difficulties  which  this 
pastorate  involved,  arising  from  extra- 
ordinary activity  in  business  and  the 
rapid  accumulation  of  wealth,  with  its 
attendant  temptations,  but  pass  from 
any  further  consideration  of  these  out- 
ward and  accidental  conditions  of  this 
pastorate  to  consider  its  distinction 
and  positive  characteristics. 

First  of  all  Dr.  Porter  lived  su- 
premely in  and  for  his  pastorate.  As 
a  man  he  sought  first  the  kingdom  of 
God  and  His  righteousness  for  himself 
and  his  household  with  more  than  usual 
distinctness  of  aim,  energy  of  action, 
continuity  of  purpose  and  wisdom  of 
judgment.  But  he  also  sought  this 
kingdom  with  its  sacrifices  and  bless- 
ings for  his  entire  people  with  a  sin- 
gular wideness  of  grasp  and  devoted- 
ness  of  spirit.  His  supreme  aim  was 
to  promote  this  kingdom  for  others  by 
being  a  successful  pastor,  and  so  con- 
spicuously that  to  those  who  knew  him 
best  he  seemed  to  live  for  little  else. 
The  one  thought  which  penetrated 
and  compassed  his  life  and  was  with 
him  whether  at  home  and  abroad  was 
his  parish   and  its   interests.     It  was 


not  even  his  own  success  that  he  cared 
for  through  the  prosperity  of  his  flock, 
but  it  was  their  welfare  as  committed 
to  his  charge.  It  is  one  thing  for  a 
pastor  to  live  for  his  own  success  in  a 
partially  selfish  spirit  and  quite  another 
for  him  to  be  so  completely  absorbed 
by  the  desire  for  the  well  being  of  his 
people  that  their  relation  to  his  com- 
fort is  not  thought  of.  No  one  who 
saw  Dr.  Porter  in  his  own  house  and 
could  read  what  passed  in  his  mind 
and  often  preoccupied  all  his  thoughts, 
could  question  that  the  true  welfare  of 
his  people  was  the  moving  spring  of 
his  life,  and  that  it  often  rested  more 
heavily  upon  his  heart  than  was  well  for 
him  or  for  them.  It  was  literally  true 
"  that  they  were  always  in  his  heart  to 
live  and  die  with  them."  As  life  went 
on  toward  its  bright  noon  and  signal 
blessings  had  transformed  hundreds 
who  had  been  dissolute  and  profane  or 
passionate  and  self-seeking,  into  pure 
and  prayerful,  into  forgiving  and  unsel- 
fish Christians,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
his  interest  in  the  older  generation  that 
was  now  visibly  ripening  for  heaven, 
should  lead  him  to  greet  the  new  gen- 
eration that  was  coming  forward  with 
a  still  tenderer  love  and  that  in  this 
way  his  human  love  and  affection  for 
his  great  family  should  mellow  and 
mature  into  a  more  and  more  unselfish 
affection  till  he  at  last  appropriated 
them  all  to  himself  in  his  own  enlarged 
personal  life. 

As  I  have  already  intimated  his  con- 
secration to  his  pastoral  work  was  sin- 
gularly intelligent.  His  love  abounded 
in  knowledge  and  in  all  judgment. 
First  of  all  it  made  him  a  student. 
He  was  indeed  by  nature  a  student, 
not  so  much  because  he  delighted  in 
intellectual  activity  as  because  he  de 
lighted  in  the  truth,  and  searched  for 
it  as  for  hid  treasures.  He  believed  in 
its  convincing  energy,  especially  in  the 
last  two  thirds  of  his  pastorate.  Dur- 
ing the  first  third  of  his  pastorate  he 
was  zealous  for  orthodoxy,  having  in- 
herited the  New  England  sturdy  con- 
fidence in  a  fixed  form  of  sound  doc- 
trines as  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 


eaintSj-which  he  was  bound  to  honor  and 
defend  and  proclaim,  in  its  harsher  as 
well  as  its  milder  features,  as  he  would 
be  true  to  his  allegiance  to  his  Lord. 
In  the  last  two-thirds  of  his  ministry 
he  found  a  new  meaning  in  the  utter- 
ance that  it  is  by  manifestation  of  the 
truth  that  the  preacher  should  commend 
himself  to  every  man's  conscience  in 
the  sight  of  God.  His  enlarged  views  of 
the  intrinsic  adaptation  of  the  gospel 
to  the  soul  of  man,  imparted  a  new 
interest  to  his  preaching  and  his  pas- 
toral services.  For  they  brought 
an  augmented  sense  of  an  augment- 
ed responsibility  for  the  matter  of 
his  preaching  and  to  the  manner  of 
setting  it  forth.  This  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility gave  new  interest  to  his 
studies,  for  he  ever  afterwards  studied 
with  his  people  in  his  eye  and  his 
mind,  and  reached  forward  after  still 
new  thoughts  and  new  illustrations  and 
more  moving  appeals  by  which  if  pos 
sible  he  might  interest  and  convince 
them,  and  bring  them  to  Christ.  He 
was  always  a  student,  and  of  nothing 
was  he  more  impatient  than  of  the  cares 
and  distractions  and  pleasures  that 
kept  him  out  of  his  study.  Having 
faith  in  the  truth  he  could  not  but  seek 
truth  with  unabated  enthusiasm  and 
hopefulness.  But  as  he  studied  for  use 
and  the  use  of  others,  his  studies  were 
never  aimless  nor  scattering,  but  were 
always  directed  to  some  definite  issue. 
Hence  they  were  always  systematic, 
being  kept  in  order  by  the  immediate 
ends  of  goo«l  to  others.  Trifling  with 
matters  of  curious  interest  he  could 
not  patiently  tolerate  in  others,  much 
less  practise  for  himself.  But  his 
studies  were  never  belittled  by  his  in- 
tense desire  to  make  them  useful.  He 
believed  that  whatever  interested  him- 
self he  could  bring  within  the  reach  of 
others.  The  loving  desire  to  impart 
gave  a  fresh  impulse  to  his  desire  to 
learn.  Hence  any  new  interj^retation 
of  Christian  truth  found  him  willing  and 
candid  to  reconsider  old  arguments. 
And  so  it  was  that  his  mind  ever  grew 
brighter  and  wider  in  its  judgments, 
even  when   his  eyesight   almost  failed  I 


DR.     PORrER.  IS 

him,and  deafness  partially  shut  him  out 
from  conversation.  He  welcomed  new 
thoughts  and  he  had  them  till  the  last, 
but  his  new  speculations  blended 
thankfully  with  his  ever  freshening  and 
more  simple  trust.  He  was  not  afraid 
of  any  new  light  which  might  break 
forth  from  God's  Holy  Word,  hecause 
he  had  so  saturated  his  mind  with  its 
great  teachings  and  its  prevailing 
spirit  that  he  had  no  misgivings  that 
its  truth  could  fail.  Measuring  truth 
by  its  moral  and  spiritual  value  and 
power,  and  finding  as  he  went  on  in 
life,  that  the  same  truths  might  be  dif- 
ferently conceived  and  differently 
phrased,  and  yet  ripen  into  the  same 
flowers  and  fruits  of  the  Christian  life, 
he  became  more  and  more  catholic  in 
his  judgments  of  teachings  that  seem- 
ed to  be  diverse,  and  more  and  more 
ready  to  look  at  old  truths  in  new 
lights.  It  was  characteristic  of  the 
closing  months  of  this  aged  pastor, 
that  at  eighty-six  some  of  his  latest 
reading  was  devoted  to  Ecce  Homo, 
for  the  second  or  third  time,  and  that 
his  Greek  Testament  was  found  open 
upon  his  study  table  at  his  death. 

As  a  teacher  and  preacher,  he  was 
first  of  all  as  might  have  been  expected, 
instructive.  We  have  seen  why  and  how 
he  prosecuted  his  studies.  It  would 
be  impossible  that  he  should  not  write 
well-considered  and  thoughtful  ser- 
mons. They  were  such  as  his  people 
listened  to  even  to  the  end,  with  the 
distinct  impi-ession  that  from  every 
one  they  could  bring  something  away 
which  was  fresh  and  new,  of  solid  and 
animating  thought.  His  sermons  were 
perhaps  too  abstract  and  elaborate, 
and  overweighted  with  matter.  They 
were  too  long  to  suit  modern  tastes  and 
notions,  but  they  were  acknowledged 
to  be  practical,  meditative,  uniformly 
finished  in  diction,  and  elevated  in  sen- 
timent. Not  infrequently  they  rose 
into  a  warm  glow  of  spiritual  elo- 
quence. Some  of  the  last  which  he 
wrote,  were  distinguished  for  freedom 
and  flexibility,  for  beauty  and  pathos. 
With  no  special  attractiveness  of  man- 
ner, with  neither  the  capacity  nor  the 


16  DR.     PORTEF. 

taste  for  sensational  devices,  be  never' 
preached  that  he  did  not  impart  some 
thoughts  that  came  out  of  his  own 
Christian  life  and  were  fitted  to  pass 
into  the  lives  of  his  hearers.  The  best 
of  his  teachings  was  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  his  written  sermons.  His 
occasional  and  unwritten  discourses 
were  numerous  and  well  sustained. 
He  wrote  and  discoursed  without  flag- 
ging and  without  vacations  for  scores 
of  years,  on  a  scale  which  would  fright- 
en a  pastor  of  these  times  even  to 
think  of.  In  his  meridian  activity  and 
even  after  the  beginning  of  old  age, 
his  regular  weekly  meetings  were  as 
follows :  Three  services  on  Sunday, 
involving  two  written  discourses  and  a 
familiar  lecture  or  exposition  in  the 
evening,  with  an  occasional  attendance 
at  the  Sunday-school,  a  weekly  lec- 
ture on  Wednesday  evening,  and  anoth- 
er in  some  outlying  school-house,  on  I  itan  morals,  before  which  early  in  his 
Thursday  afternoon  or  evening.  For  I  ministry,  Dr.  Porter  preached  one  of 
all  these  services,  more  or  less  definite  l  the  annual  sermons.  He  had  been 
preparation  was  made.  In  his  unwrit-  nearly  twenty  years  in  the  pastorate 
ten  discourses  he  spoke  with  great  before  the  first  temperance  movement 
freedom,  but  never  did  he  venture  to  commenced.  Twenty  years  before 
do  this  in  the  pulpit,  although  the  flu  this  time  a  hogshead  of  rum  had 
ency  and  fervor  which  characterized  I  been  sold  at  retail  in  a  single  day  in 
such  addresses  showed  that  had  he !  the  village,  and  eight  or  ten  retail 
done  so,  his  pulpit  discourses  would  j  shops  had  been  actively  sustained  by 
have  been  marked  by  greater  variety,  i  respectable  traders.  Most  of  the 
and  the  bondage  to  the  pulpit  which '  farmers  depended  for  ready  money  on 
he  never  could  throw  ofl'  would  have ,  the  sale  of  cider  at  the  many  numeij- 
been  less  oppressive.  But  this  infelic- !  ous  small  distilleries.  The  evil  was 
ity  he  shared  with  all  the  brethren  of  i  so  serious  that  Dr.  Porter  in  connec- 
his  neighborhood  save  two,  Rev.  Joab  tion  with  most  of  the  Congregational 
Brace  of  Newington,  and  Rev.  Luther  pastors  of  Connecticut,*  acted  with 
Hart,  of  Plymouth,  whose  name   and  promptness  and  energy  in  furtherance 


wealthy  and  gay  community  which  at 
that  time  swarmed  in  the  streets  and 
houses  of  Farmington.  It  was  not  easy 
for  the  youthful  pastorto  speak  with  au- 
thority and  boldness  of  prevalent  vices 
before  the  elders  who  had  known  him 
as  a  boy,  or  to  discourse  of  the  duties 
of  the  rich  in  the  preparation  of  their 
rate-lists,  when  he  had  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  on  this  point  many  of  them 
wei'e  especially  remiss,  but  none  of 
these  duties  were  overlooked.  In  deal- 
ing with  individuals  who  were  noto- 
riously immoral,  the  pastor  was  faithful 
in  the  extreme,  and  yet  he  never  forgot 
the  admonition  that  "the  servant  must 
not  strive ;  but  be  gentle  to  all  men, 
able  to  teach,  patient,  in  meekness  in- 
structing those  that  oppose  them- 
selves. "  In  the  early  part  of  his  pas- 
torate, an  association  was  formed  in 
the  State  for  the  promotion   of  Chris- 


place  among  the  pastors  of  Connect 
icut  of  the  last  generation  deserves  to 
be  better  known  than  it  now  is. 

As  an  ethical  teacher  and  guide  he 
was  bold  and  fearless  and  outspoken. 
In  the  early  part  of  his  ministry,  in- 
temperance was  a  prevailing  vice,  and 
social  drinking  was  universal,  and  even 
countenanced  by  the  ministry.  There 
were  not  a  few  of  the  greater  and 
lesser  immoralities  against  which  he 
was  expected  to  protest,  and  he  did 
protest  most  earnestly.  Some  of  these 
were     especially    prominent    in     the 


of  the  first  Temperance  Reformation. 
He  subsequently  gave  his  cordial  ad- 
hesion to  the  movement  to  abstain 
from  all  intoxicating  drinks,  and  was 
far  in  advance  of  his  people  in  both 
these  enterprises.  Then  came  the 
Anti-slavery  excitement  which  very 
sharply  divided  the  pastors  of  the 
State.  Dr.  Porter  did  not  hesitate 
from  the  first  to  denounce  slavery  as 
a  system,  and  to  dwell  in  his  sermons 
and  other  discourses  on  the  evils  which 
must  inevitably  attend  it,  but  he  did 
not  accept  tlie  abstract  theories  adopted 


by  the  originators  of  the  movement, 
nor  did  he  sympathize  with  their  indis- 
criminating  denunciations,  and  for 
these  reasons  did  not  join  himself  to 
their  association.  It  so  happened  that 
his  parish  became  one  of  the  minor, 
but  very  active  centers  for  anti-slavery 
propagandism.  Some  of  the  prom- 
inent men  in  the  church  were  zealous 
propagandists  of  the  extremest  doc- 
trines. Not  a  little  money  was  con- 
tributed to  the  cause.  Frequent  con- 
ventions were  held  at  which  laggard 
churches  and  temporizing  ministers 
were  unceremoniously  rebuked.  Neigh- 
boring ministers  high  in  position,  and 
prominent  members  of  churches  gave 
countenance  to  violent  and  denuncia- 
tory language  in  respect  to  brother 
pastors  and  sister  churches.  An  earnest 
and  persistent  effort  was  made  to  bring 
into  use  very  extreme  doctrines  as 
tests  of  Christian  fellowship,  and  to 
bring  all  the  churches  to  utter  protests 
by  resolution  and  by  other  methods  to 
debar  from  the  communion  of  the 
Lord's  Supper  those  who  could  not 
purge  themselves  from  all  complicity 
with  slavery.  A  majority  of  votes  was 
obtained  in  Dr.  Porter's  own  church 
for  a  series  of  resolutions  of  this  de- 
scription, and  the  pastor  was  reques- 
ted to  announce  them  by  solemn  denun- 
ciation at  every  communion  service. 
These  proceedings  were  offensive  to 
his  conscience.  He  regarded  these 
votes  as  doing  violence  to  the  teachings 
of  the  New  Testament  and  to  the  very 
spirit  of  Christianity.  With  great 
boldness,  but  with  still  greater  patience 
and  gentleness  he  reasoned  and  ex- 
postulated, but  failed  to  convince. 
His  own  integrity  he  would  not  and 
could  not  renounce.  Bat  while  he 
kept  his  integrity  he  also  controlled 
his  temper  and  preserved  his  dignity 
and  self-respect,  and  through  all  the 
painful  personalities  that  attended 
these  discussions,  he  was  true  to  the 
spirit  of  his  Master.  Perhaps  no 
phase  of  his  life  as  a  pastor  was  more 
fruitful  in  Christian  instructiveness 
than  the  manly  dignity  and  patient 
sweetness,  which  he  manifested  during 


DR.     PORTER.  17 

j  these   trying   years   in  which  old  age 

I  was  beginning   to  gather  around  him 

j  and   its   sombre   darkness   was   made 

'  more  gloomy  by  a  wild  storm  like  this. 

I  The  storm  passed  away.  The  last  of  its 

I  lingering  clouds  vanished  into  air,  and 

j  long  before  his  death  the  entire  church 

and   parish  rejoiced   in  the   mild  and 

benignant  rays  of  the  sun  which  had 

blessed   them   so  long  and  shone  out 

again   after  being   clouded   by  vapors 

engendered   by  earthly  passions. 

In  respect  to  revivals  of  religion, 
the  pas  borate  of  Dr.  Porter  was  some- 
what peculiar.  For  the  first  fifteen 
years  there  was  no  great  awakening  to 
religious  things.  There  had  been 
none  for  more  than  twenty  years.  Of  a 
population  of  2,400;  only  200  were 
communicants,  and  of  these  very  few 
belonged  to  the  gay  and  wealthy  fam- 
ilies of  the  village.  In  1821,  in  con- 
nection with  a  general  awakening  in 
the  State  and  with  the  preaching  of 
Dr.  Nettleton  the  evangelist,  some 
240  were  added  to  the  church.  Such 
special  movements  occui-red  very  fre- 
quently after  this  till  the  pastor's 
death,  as  in  1823,  1826,  1828,  1831, 
1834,  1838,  1840,  1843,  1851,  and  not 
infrequently  afterward.  In  the  first 
fifty  years  of  this  pastorate  1,138  were 
received  as  communicants,  866  on  pro- 
fession of  faith.  In  all  these  revivals 
of  religion  the  pastor  was  uniformly 
foremost  in  his  sympathy  and  zeal. 
He  used  his  wisdom  also,  that  zeal 
should  not  flash  into  fanaticism,  and 
that  ignorance  and  forwardness,  how- 
ever much  they  might  be  tolerated, 
should  never  get  the  better  of  knowl- 
edge. While  as  pastor  he  had  marvel- 
lous patience  with  all  forms  of  religious 
activity,  he  never  forgot  the  par- 
able of  the  Sower.  Sluggishness  and 
indifference  in  the  kingdom  of  God  he 
regarded  as  worse  than  almost  any 
forms  of  fanaticism  and  folly,  and  so 
he  would  labor  with  ignorant  and 
windy  men,  and  use  his  utmost  to 
guide  without  seeming  to  fail  in  sym- 
pathy. He  could  say  very  truly,  "some 
indeed  preach  Christ  even  of  envy  and 
strife,  and  some  also  of  good-will,  not- 


18  DR.     PORTER. 

withstanding  every  way  whether  in 
pretence  or  in  truth  Christ  is  preached, 
and  I  therein  do  rejoice  and  will  re- 
joice." In  all  the  later  years  of  his 
pastorate  it  ought  to  be  said  that  his 
labors  and  successes  were  eminently 
with  the  young,  and  it  was  interesting 
to  see  how  as  he  was  growing  older  in 
years  his  sympathies  were  more  entire- 
ly with  the  young,  and  there  grew  up 
in  his  own  nature  a  beautiful  childhood 
of  gentleness  which  gave  additional 
grace  to  his  natural  intelligence  and 
faith.  All  the  while  his  interest  in 
literature  and  art  and  amusements 
became  more  pronounced,  and  while  it 
was  most  obvious  that  his  affections 
were  more  and  more  set  upon  things 
above,  it  was  evident  that  the  earth 
was  yielding  him  more  and  more 
delight. 

Dr.  Porter's  relations  to  the  public 
deserve  some  notice.  Though  he 
seemed  to  be  chiefly  occupied  with  his 
own  flock,  and  more  than  usually  en- 
grossed by  its  duties  and  cares,  he 
was  eminently  a  pxihlic  soul.  He 
cared  earnestly  and  zealously  for  the 
whole  church  of  Christ.  It  is  charged 
against  Congregationalism  that  it  tends 
to  isolation  and  individualism  on  the 
part  of  both  pastors  and  churches. 
Congregationalism,  it  is  said,  finds  the 
source  of  authority  in  the  individual 
church,  and  has  no  organized  arrange- 
ments with  power  to  represent  and 
enforce  its  common  life  with  the  body 
of  Christ.  It  is  inferred  that  pastors 
and  churches  must  inevitably  limit 
their  concern  to  their  separate  inter- 
ests, and  become  narrow,  selfish, 
unchristian  and  uncatholic.  There 
may  be  a  danger  in  this  direction.  It 
now  and  then  happens  that  a  strong  church 
in  the  self-sufficiency  of  its  own  power  or 
resources  or  social  position,  or  in  the  con- 
ceit of  its  own  superior  knowledge  or  piety, 
or  a  small  church  in  the  querrulousness  of 
its  own  weakness,  withdra'ws  itself  from 
any  common  sj'mpathy  with  its  neighbors. 
Sometimes  a  pastor  from  hauteur,  narrow- 
ness, or  self-conceit,  or  from  pure  selfish- 
ness may  limit  the  attention  and  sympathies 
of  his  people  to  themselves  and  himself. 
That  this  is  not  Christian  is  manifest.  If 
it  were  Congregational  it  would  condemn 


the  system.  We  contend  that  Congrega- 
tional pastors  and  churches  from  their 
very  freedom  and  independence  respond 
more  quickly  and  more  heartily  to  any 
Christian  call,  and  that  under  the  working 
of  no  system  has  the  spirit  of  fellowship 
been  more  manifest  and  its  fruits  more 
abundant,  that  the  pastors  of  no  churches  are 
more  true  to  one  another,  and  the  churches 
and  pastors  are  more  ready,  than  those  of 
other  names  to  overlook  denominational 
divisions  and  to  give  sympathy  and  help  to 
all  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sin- 
cerity. It  is  certain  that  the  part  of  a 
pastor's  duty  was  fulfilled  with  remarkable 
fidelity  by  Dr.  Porter.  He  could  not  con- 
ceive of  a  church  to  be  animated  by  the 
right  spirit  which  did  not  always  lift  up  its 
hands  in  the  prayer,  Thy  kingdom  come. 
He  could  not  conceive  its  hands  should  be 
thus  raised  in  prayer,  if  they  were  not  also 
stretched  forth  to  minister  blessings  to  all 
whom  they  might  reach.  Hence  he  was 
always  alive  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
churches  in  his  neighborhood.  Was  any 
weak  or  divided,  or  despondent,  he  gave  it 
his  sympathy  and  aid.  He  abounded  in 
kind  judgments  and  friendly  acts  towards 
his  brother  ministers.  He  was  uniformly 
present  on  those  occasions  when  church 
met  church,  and  pastor  met  pastor. 
Though  proverbially  fond  of  his  home  and 
reluctant  to  leave  it,  he  rarely  if  ever  ex- 
cused himself  from  calls  like  these. 

Every  movement  of  modern  benevolence 
originated  during  his  pastorate.  For 
many  years  the  only  collections  taken  up 
in  the  church  were  those  authorized  by 
law,  for  the  help  of  feeble  congregations 
in  Connecticut,  and  a  Female  Cent  Society, 
each  subscriber  to  which,  made  an  annual 
collection  of  fifty  cents,  and  an  annual 
contribution  for  the  churches  in  the  New 
Settlements.  Every  other  contribution  for 
the  progress  of  the  kingdom  of  God  came 
into  being  under  his  eye.  Almost  every 
one  was  greeted  by  his  sympathy.  He 
gave  liberally  himself  to  these  associations 
after  a  fixed  method,  and  he  solemnly  im- 
pressed upon  his  people  the  duty  of  abun- 
dant gifts.  He  cared  for  every  one  of  these 
societies  which  had  won  his  confidence  as 
though  it  were  under  his  personal  care, 
and  recognized  a  response  to  its  claims 
as  part  of  his  duty  as  pastor.  With  the 
missionary  enterprises  of  the  American 
Board  which  was  formed  at  his  house,  and 
of  the  American  Home  Missionary  Society 
he  maintained  the  closest  sympathy,  and 
by  his  influence  large  sums  of  money  were 
directed  to  their  treasuries.  For  every  local 
enterprise  connected  with  the  denomina- 


tion  he  was  always  ready.  In  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Doctrinal  Tract  Society, 
of  the  Monthly  Christian  Spectator,  and 
of  the  Connecticut  Observer,  in  the  found- 
ing of  the  Theological  Seminary  at  New 
Haven,  in  the  raising  of  money  for  Yale 
College,  he  was  most  efficient,  and  con- 
sidered that  all  these  services  to  the  church 
of  Christ  were  but  the  natural  and  neces- 
sary outflows  of  his  office  as  a  pastor. 

His  increased  catholicity  of  feeling  in 
respect  to  differences  in  doctrine  and 
rite  and  organization,  was  manifest  in  his 
later  years.  The  sturdy  pertinacity  which 
he  stood  almost  a  alone  among  his  peers  in 
defending  the  rights  of  his  association  to 
judge  of  the  orthodoxy  of  a  most  honored 
brother,  and  the  catholic  construction  with 
which  he  was  disposed  to  measure  and  in- 
terpret his  doctrinal  expositions,  were 
evidences  of  his  sincere  concern  for  the 
freedom  of  the  ministry  as  essential  to  the 
life  of  the  church,  and  of  the  duty  of 
the  ministry  to  enforce  no  armed  tests  of 
communion.  Whether  he  erred  in  opinion 
much  it  is  not  fit  that  I  should  here  assert 
or  deny.  All  that  I  care  to  illustrate  is, 
that  his  catholic  charity  was  the  fruit  of  the 


PR.     PORTEK.  19 

I  prayer  which  more  and  more  expressed 
his  spirit.  "  Grace  mercy  and  peace  be 
with  all  who  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in 
sincerity."  Though  pastor  of  a  quiet  vil- 
lage church,  and  rarely  seen  at  great  meet- 
ings and  never  heard  on  platforms,  it  was 
his  daily  and  nightly  prayer  that  the 
church  of  Christ  might  be  healed  of  all 
its  delusions. 

He  believed  that  most  of  the  sects  which, 
are  the  scandal  and  shame  of  Protestant 
Christendom  were  entirely  needless,  and 
he  looked  forward  to  the  time  when  differ- 
ences in  rite  and  ritual  and  organization 
should  no  longer  rend  the  body  of  Christ. 
His  end  was  eminently  peaceful.  His 
remains  were  providentially  detained 
from  burial  by  a  severe  storm,  in  the  old 
church  in  which  he  had  preached  for  sixty 
years,  whence  during  a  dark  and  dismal 
night  they  were  watched  by  a  few  faithful 
men  of  his  flock.  On  the  following  morn- 
ing the  sun  came  forth  and  he  was  laid  in 
the  grave,  near  the  river  that  waters  the 
meadow  over  which  he  had  feasted  his  eye 
with  so  much  delight,  and  over  against 
the  hills,  beyond  which  he  had  so  long 
looked  for  the  city  of  God. 


JUDOE  THOMAS  SCOTT  WILLIAMS,  LL.  D, 


Chief  Justice  Williams. 

BY    KEV.  O.  E.  DAGGETT,  D.  D. 

In  consenting  to  prepare  the  tribute 
asked  of  me  on  this  occasion  to  the  late 
Chief  Justice  Williams,  I  acknowledge  the 
motive,  and  may  claim  at  least  the  one  qual- 
ification, of  a  profound  respect  and  warm 
esteem  for  the  subject,  such  as  I  have 
scarcely  known  for  any  public  man.  It  is 
rooted  among  the  traditions  of  my  child- 
hood, and  I  may  say  inherited  from  my 
father.  I  well  remember  my  early  inter- 
est in  the  lawyers  with  whom  he  was  as- 
sociated professionally  in  the  several  coun- 
ties of  this  State,  and  how  I  questioned 
him  about  one  and  another  with  the  in- 
quisitiveness  of  a  boy,  and  when  I  asked 
him  who  was  the  best  lawyer  in  Hartford, 
how  heartily  he  would  answer,  Thomas  S. 
Williams.  Maturer  years  deepened  this 
interest.  I  gratefully  remember  his  kind 
reception  when  I  entered  on  my  first  pas- 
torate in  this  city,  though  not  in  the  same 
congregation.  Often  as  I  revisited  the 
place  in  his  old  age,  I  availed  myself  of 
the  opportunity,  as  of  a  privilege,  to  re- 
new the  personal  intercourse  with  which 
he  had  honored  me.  "  Thine  own  friend 
and  thy  father's  friend  forsake  not." 

It  is  but  sixteen  years  since  he  passed 
away.  His  judicial  term  ended  by  con- 
stitutional limitation  fourteen  years  earlier. 
It  is  almost  half  a  century  since  in  coming 
upon  the  bench  he  gave  up  his  large  prac- 
tice at  the  bar  [1825.  ]  Few  now  can  remem- 
ber him  as  the  vigorous  and  successful 
advocate,  among  the  foremost  in  the  State. 
Even  as  a  Judge  he  cannot  be  now  famil- 
iarly known  to  many  outside  of  the  jjro- 
fession.  Within  that  circle  indeed  his  ar- 
guments and  decisions  in  the  law-reports 
are  an  enduring  monument  of  his  profes- 
sional ability.  It  makes  a  subject  for  re- 
flection, not  without  solemn  suggestive- 
ness,  to  think  how  soon,  apart  from  suc- 
cessful elementary  treatises  or  the  origina- 


tion of  noted  reforms,  the  reputation  of  an 
eminent  advocate  or  jurist  becomes  a  tra- 
dition, itself  speedily  fading  in  the  public 
mind  where  it  once  figured  so  conspicu- 
ously. Thomas  Scott  Williams  is,  how- 
ever, a  name  still  honored  in  this  commu- 
nity. He  was  duly  commemorated  soon, 
after  his  decease  in  1861,  both  as  a  lawyer 
and  a  Christian  man,  through  sketches  of 
his  character  and  worth,  in  a  sermon  by 
his  pastor,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hawes,  a  notice 
in  the  29th  vol.  of  the  Connecticut  Re- 
ports, and  in  an  article  in  the  Congrega- 
tional Quarterly  for  Jan.  1863,  accompan- 
ied by  an  excellent  portrait.  The  lapse  of 
time  justifies  recurrence  to  a  theme  so 
profitable  and  inviting. 

In  this  service  it  was  not  meant  to  delin- 
eate the  professional  merits  of  Judge  Wil- 
liams. Yet  this  sphere  of  his  unques- 
tioned excellence  must  be  fully  recognized 
in  order  that  he  may  be  the  more  dis- 
tinctly appreciated  as  the  *'  faithful  Lay- 
man." An  adequate  estimate  of  his  en- 
dowments, worth  and  success,  as  a  lawyer 
and  a  judge,  must  be  sought  from  his 
brethren  in  that  profession,  as  in  the  vol- 
ume referred  to  already.  Accepting  their 
testimony,  others  could  also  for  themselves 
discover  in  him  those  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart  which  indeed  fitted  him  to  excel 
in  his  chosen  pursuit,  and  were  the  more 
sharply  tested  and  developed  by  its  duties, 
yet  belonged  to  the  man,  in  every  sphere 
of  thought  and  action.  As  may  be  noted 
of  not  a  few  eminent  men,  he  had  a  cei'tain 
simiDlicity  and  transparency  of  character 
which  enabled  common  observers  to  ap- 
preciate gifts  and  virtues  that  in  other 
cases  might  disclose  themselves  only  to  the 
eyes  of  professional  critics.  He  was  al- 
ways felt  to  be  himself,  whether  in  the 
court-rooom  or  a  religious  service  or  at 
the  fireside.  Hence,  honored  as  he  was 
professionally,  his  influence  was  the  more 
personal,  inseparable  from  his  daily  life, 
and    accumulating    with    his    intercourse 


CHIEF    JUSTICE    WILLIAMS. 


through  successive  years  with  all  classes  of 
society.  Hence  the  well  remembered 
weight  of  that  influence  when  he  openly 
took  the  vows  of  Chirstian  discipleship, 
and  bore  his  manly  part  in  all  the 
activities  of  the  church-life  through  a  mel- 
low, fruitful  old  age,  till  he  came  to  his 
grave  "like  as  a  shock  of  com  cometh  in 
in  his  season." 

There  are  now  so  few  who  can  remem- 
ber his  appearance  as  an  advocate  that 
I  naturally  recur  to  an  impression  re- 
tained from  my  early  youth  when  I 
heard  him  trying  a  cause  before  a  jury  in 
this  city.  He  seemed  to  me  one  of  the 
most  vehement  speakers  I  have  ever  heard. 
It  would  be  hardly  imagined  by  those  who 
have  seen  only  his  judicial  action,  that  he 
struck  the  table  violently  and  the  saliva 
gathered  on  his  lips  in  the  impetuosity  of 
his  utterance.  There  appeared  to  be  then, 
as  afterwards,  some  difficulty  about  his 
articulation  which  he  overcame  by  sheer 
energy  of  feeling.  As  has  been  said  of 
some  others,  he  took  fire  with  the  rapidity 
of  his  movement.  To  have  been  more  de- 
liberate would  have  made  him  less  effec- 
tive. I  refer  to  this  fact  as  one  among 
many  showing  that  either  a  quicker  or 
slower  movement  may  be  the  more  effec- 
tive in  different  speakers  according  to  their 
temperament  and  the  condition  of  their 
organs,  in  opposition  to  theories  that 
would  prescribe  a  given  rate  for  all.  Thus 
it  is  well  known  that  one  of  the  most  elo- 
quent preachers  of  our  day  is  perhaps  the 
fastest  speaker  on  record,  and  a  clerical 
friend,  who  had  urged  him  to  abMe  his 
speed,  on  hearing  him  try  the  experiment 
said  he  would  never  ask  him  again.  On 
the  other  hand  another  orator  who  has  no 
superior  on  the  platform  is  not  less  re- 
markable for  his  deliberateness.  But  the 
fact  is  significant  also  of  a  leading  trait  of 
Judge  Williams, — his  strength  of  convic- 
tion and  earnestness  of  purpose.  He  be- 
lieved and  therefore  spoke.  There  was  in 
him,  on  any  grave  question  that  engaged 
his  attention,  the  force  of  what  has  been 
called  "blood-earnestness."  It  was  a 
chief  element  of  his  character,  especially 
in  the  great  things  of  morality  and  religion. 

My  own  impressions  of  his  excellence  as 
a  lawyer,  whether  at  the  bar  or  on  the 
bench,  are  confirmed  by  the  judgment  of 
critical  obsei-vers  in  his  own  profession. 
We  recognize  two  kinds  of  eminence  in 
this  calling,  both  requiring  powers  of  a 
high  order.  There  are  those  whose  minds 
are  speculative,  systematic,  broad  in  their 
learning,  addicted  to  subtle  or  remote 
questions,    more   conversant    with   books 


21 

than  with  men  and  things.  Others,  not 
less  acute  but  less  given  to  abstractions, 
with  robust  understandings  and  quick  per- 
ceptions, are  masters  of  the  law,  es- 
pecially of  the  common  law  in  its  prac- 
tical applications,  and  also  of  the  cases 
under  their  care,  assailing  or  defending 
vital  points,  intent  on  the  result,  and 
carrying  conviction  by  the  directness  and 
energy  of  their  appeals.  In  the  business 
of  the  courts,  and  more  especially  in  the 
office  of  an  advocate,  these  last  are  in  no 
wise  less  valued,  and  even  more  effective, 
than  the  first,  and  among  them  Judge 
Williams  held  high  rank.  His  knowledge 
of  law,  obtained  by  dilligent  study  and 
practice,  was  ever  turned  to  account  as  a 
means,  not  paraded  as  an  end.  He 
brought  his  acquisitions  and  powers  to 
bear  on  the  matter  in  hand  whether  it  were 
the  service  of  his  client  or  the  administra- 
tion of  justice,  instead  of  playing  with 
them,  like  some  orators,  as  in  the  show  of 
a  gladiator.  Then  his  mind  was  singularly 
clear  and  direct  in  all  its  movements,  and 
his  style  corresponded.  Whatever  he  had 
to  say  in  discourse  or  conversation,  he  did 
not  go  "about  it  and  about  it,"  magnify- 
ing and  confusing  things  in  a  misty  rhet- 
oric. One  could  not  hear  him  talk  without 
feeling  that  he  had  something  to  say  to 
some  good  purpose, which  the  hearer  could 
learn.  There  are  those  who  commend 
a  man's  "inwardness:"  Judge  Williams 
was  to  be  commended  for  his  ouwardness, 
or  better  still,  his  rightonwardness.  So 
quick  and  sure  were  his  perceptions  that 
he  seemed  to  see  his  conclusion  instead  of 
feeling  his  way  to  it  step  by  step,  so  that, 
as  the  Reporter  has  remarked,  it  was 
rather  an  intuition  than  a  logical  process, 
though  he  could  vindicate  it  logically.  On 
an  occasion  that  allowed  of  fervor  and  sym- 
pathy he  was  eloquent  because  he  was  effec- 
tive. It  is  one  of  the  best  definitions  of  elo- 
quence that,  such  an  occasion  being  given, 
one  "speaks  to  the  pui-pose."  He  was  not 
imaginative,  nor  had  he  wit  or  humor,  and 
he  neither  affected  nor  sought  what  are 
called  the  graces  of  language  or  manner, 
but  his  clear,  weighty  thought  and  emo- 
tional energy  made  the  hearer  not  miss 
these  sources  of  influence.  He  seemed  to 
disdain  ornaments,  or  rather  to  overlook 
them,  as  a  racer  does  his  trappings.  In 
these  respects,  — his  clearness,  force  and 
simplicity,  in  the  practical  qualities  of  his 
mind  and  manner, — he  might  be  regarded 
as  a  typical  New  Englander  of  an  ancient 
and  honorable  class. 

But  above  all  these  gifts  we  recall  on 
this  occasion  the  quality  which,   whether 


CHIEF    JUSTICE    WILLIAMS. 


22 

in  his  judicial  station  or  as  a  Christian 
citizen,  characterized  him  as  eminently 
as  any  other  man, — the  incorruptible  in- 
tegrity, that  gave  his  very  name  solid 
weight  in  this  community.  Upright  men 
in  his  station  have  been  observed  to  be  so 
sensitively  jealous  of  any  possible  bias  on 
their  judgment  from  an  advocate's  per- 
sonal relations  to  themselves  as  to  lean  to 
the  other  side  rather  than  in  his  favor,  and 
Judge  Williams  was  of  this  order.  His 
nephew,  the  Hon.  Francis  Parsons,  used 
to  speak  of  his  own  disadvantage,  in  con- 
ducting a  cause  before  him,  from  this  cir- 
cumstance. A  scrupulous  integrity  is  the 
one  preeminent  qualification  for  the  office 
which  he  honored.  Proverbially  "the 
ermine  of  the  Judge  "  must  be  as  spotless 
as  woman's  robe  of  chastity.  No  less  is  it 
the  support  and  crown  of  the  Christian 
profession,  without  which,  as  without 
charity,  all  shining  endowments  leave  that 
name  no  better  than  sounding  brass  or  a 
tinkling  cymbal.  Its  value  needs  no  other 
vindication  in  our  times  than  the  shame 
which  the  absence  of  it  in  so  many  places 
of  honor  and  trust  brings  on  the  sacred 
cause  in  whose  behalf  we  are  assembled. 
I  must  be  permitted  to  add  that  the  exam- 
ple now  in  view  is  one  of  many  that  should 
redeem  the  legal  profession  from  certain 
popular  aspersions.  All  sorts  of  men  in- 
deed find  their  way  into  this  as  into  other 
reputable  callings,  as  even  into  the  minis- 
try,— the  "net"  still  gathering  "the  good 
and  bad ; "  the  severest  rectidude  is  not 
a  condition  of  admission  to  the  bar,  nor 
yet  always  to  the  pulpit ;  but  I  will  affirm 
that  the  standard  of  personal  integrity  in 
affairs  of  business  is  at  least  as  high  in 
that  profession  as  in  any  other  equally 
large  and  accessible.  Leading  lawyers  are 
oftener  than  is  supposed  peacemakers  be- 
tween contending  parties,  and  it  is  no  new 
thing  for  them  to  hold  back  reputable  cli- 
ents, even  some  that  are  loud  in  religious 
professions,  from  measures  morally  ques- 
tionable. 

The  friends  of  Judge  Williams  would 
not  recognize  the  portrait  here  scantily 
outlined  if  I  did  not  speak  of  his  large 
benevolence.  It  showed  itself  in  many 
forms  but  always  unostentatiously  and  in 
keeping  with  the  practical  (quality  of  the 
man.  He  loved  children  and  was  consid- 
erate toward  dependants.  His  sympathies 
were  ready  and  his  counsels  were  as  kind  as 
they  were  wise,  for  all  classes.  Naturally 
his  pecuniary  liberality  was  the  more  con- 
spicuous to  the  public  eye.  His  ample 
means  enabled  him  to  carry  out  a  sober 
and  magnanimous  good  will  as  a  leading 
contributor  to  the  charities  of  his  church 


and  of  his  time.  I  have  good  authority  for 
stating  that  one  of  his  neighbors,  a  wealthy 
and  distinguished  citizen,  when  ques- 
tioned as  to  his  own  method  of  determin- 
ing what  he  should  give  away,  answered 
that  he  generally  learned  from  a  subscrip- 
tion-list what  Judge  Williams  had  done, 
and  could  not  do  better  than  shape  his 
course  accordingly.  I  am  sure  the  church 
and  the  community  would  have  sanctioned 
this  significant  testimony  at  once  to  the 
Judge's  liberality  and  discrimination. 

We  may  reasonably  believe  that  the 
benevolence  and  integrity  here  noted  en- 
tered essentially  into  the  character  of  the 
man  through  the  main  part  of  his  long  and 
honorable  life,  instead  of  being  only  the 
outgrowth  of  that  which  was  more 
distinctively  and  avowedly  Christian.  Yet 
no  doubt  the  manly  mtegrity  which 
marked  his  earlier  manhood  became 
more  delicate  and  severe,  rising  into  a 
higher  toned  conscientiousness,  and  his 
benevolence  grew  into  a  deeper  and 
warmer  principle  and  expanded  into  a 
wider  scope,  when  in  his  later  years  he 
consciously  sui-rendered  himself  to  Christ 
and  breathed  freely  the  gratitude  and 
hopefulness  inspired  by  the  gospel. 
Plainly  there  was  this  larger  development 
in  his  steadfast  and  liberal  interest  in  be- 
half of  Christian  missions.  Thus  too  we 
may  say  that  simplicity  and  modesty  al- 
ways characterized  the  man  as  distinctly  as 
his  professional  acuteness,  and  also  that  as 
the  spiritual  element  came  to  be  more 
dominant  and  pronounced,  nothing  was 
more  conspicuous  than  his  true  Christian 
humility.  Lowliness  and  reverence  before 
God,  the  utter  absence  of  all  conceit  and 
pretension  before  men,  were  of  course  the 
more  observable  in  connection  with  his 
social  and  official  position.  And,  so  far 
from  being  assumed  or  elaborated,  it 
seemed  to  be  the  native  stamp  of  the  man, 
an  unconscious  quality  of  his  being, 
whether  he  officiated  as  a  deacon  in  the 
communion-service,  or  prayed  in  the  social 
assembly,  or  it  his  home,  or  presided  in 
the  supreme  court,  or  talked  with  us  by 
the  way.  So  does  the  grace  of  God  adjust 
itself  to  the  natures  it  renews. 

If  time  allowed  I  would  pause  on  the 
fact  which  meets  us  here,  that  Judge  Wil- 
liams' public  conf(  ssion  of  Christ,  in  con- 
nection with  the  First  Church  in  Hartford , 
did  not  take  place  till  he  was  nearly  sixty 
years  old,  about  the  time  he  became  Chief 
Justice  of  this  State,  and  followed  upon  a 
conscious  spiritual  change  which  he  re- 
garded, rather  than  any  foregoing  experi- 
ence, as  conversion.  No  doubt  that  was 
for  him  a  season  of  new  hopes,  of  more  un- 


CHIEF    JUSTICE    WILLIAMS. 


reserved  consecration,  of  spiritual  -warmth 
and  freedom  and  outgrowth  not  known  be- 
fore. But  before  that  time,  and  in  connec- 
tion with  early  judicious  Christian  nurture, 
there  were  the  traits  of  character  we  have 
noted,  and  there  were  his  decided  evangel- 
ical belief,  his  deep  reverence  for  divine 
things,  his  scrupulous  attendance  on  public 
worship,  and  also  his  performance  of  do- 
mestic duties  that  are  not  commonly  un- 
dertaken apart  from  a  Christian  profession. 
Shall  we  count  these  things  for  nothing  on 
the  question  of  character  and  salvation  ? 
Shall  we  condition  the  vital  change  in  his 
case  solely  on  his  hope  in  his  own  behalf  ? 
There  was  a  striking  resemblance  in  this 
respect  between  himself  and  his  nephew, 
to  whom  I  have  already  referred,  who  was 
also  highly  esteemed  as  a  lawyer  and  a 
man  by  the  religious  community,  yet 
through  the  many  years  of  an  exemplary 
life  would  not  venture  to  take  the  name 
and  place  of  a  Christian.  Either  of  these 
men  would  have  recognized  the  propriety 
of  such  a  profession  in  the  other,  while 
modestly  refusing  to  assume  it  for  himself, 
and  both  would  have  adorned  it  in  the  eyes 
of  others.  May  it  not  be  that  they  limited 
their  conception  of  the  character  meant  to 
be  signified  in  that  act  too  narrowly  by  the 
confidence  they  felt  in  their  own  attain- 
ments ?  And  may  it  not  be  that  much  of 
the  preaching  in  their  time  gave,  or  at 
least  allowed,  some  countenance  to  such 
undue  restriction  ?  I  raise  the  question 
because  there  are  now  not  a  few  persons 
outside  of  the  churches  who,  like  them, 
are  lenient  to  others  but  severe  judges  of 
their  own  character,  and  whose  position  is 
a  loss  at  once  to  the  churches  and  to  them- 
selves. 

It  was  this  man  who,  in  the  maturity  of 
his  powers  and  experience,  and  in  one  of 
the  highest  positions  in  the  State,  took  his 
place  in  the  church  here,  and  filled  out 
more  than  forescore  years.  If  now  one 
should  ask  the  worth  of  faithful  laymen  in 
this  and  like  instances,  we  have  no  arith- 
matic  for  computing  such  values.  What 
he  was  through  those  years  to  this  ancient 
church  and  its  pastor,  how  constant  at  his 
own  Bible  class  and  all  appointed  services, 
how  earnest  and  reverent  in  his  prayers, 
liberal  in  his  benefactions,  and  wise  in  hie 
counsels, — all  this  is  worthily  set  forth  in 
the  tribute  from  that  pastor,  who  felt  him- 
self so  tenderly  bereaved  by  his  death. 
But  it  was  good  in  those  gone-by  years  to 
hear  Dr.  Hawes  speak  of  him.  The  ac- 
cents of  that  fellowship  are  still  distinct  in 
my  ears,  and  I  say  to  myself  to-day,  what 
an  adviser,  what  a  helper,  what  a  brother 


23 

in  Christ,  what  a  true  hearted  man  was 
there ! 

I  would  lay  a  new  emphasis  on  the  un- 
conscious influence  of  such  laymen  on 
younger  and  humbler  brethren  in  church- 
associations.  It  used  to  be  said  some- 
times that  the  presence  of  distinguished 
men  in  this  church  embarrassed  the  action 
of  the  younger  members  in  social  services ; 
and  I  answered  that  no  hearers  in  any  con- 
gregation were  more  lenient  than  Judge 
Williams  and  Governor  Ellsworth  ;  that  a 
certain  restraint  in  their  presence  was  a 
wholesome  element  in  the  religious  train- 
ing of  young  men  ;  that  such  hearers  need 
only  repress  conceit  and  forwardness, 
which  moreover  ought  to  be  repressed. 
There  is  a  tendency  in  our  day  to  gather 
young  people  into  religious  meetings  of 
their  own  in  order  that  they  may  be  freer 
in  prayer  and  exhortation,  yet  liberty  here 
as  in  other  things  needs  a  guard,  and  this 
may  be  found  in  the  presence  of  ability 
and  experience.  As  far  as  a  youthful  com- 
pany shall  supplant  the  diversified  assem- 
blage ordained  from  the  beginning  for  the 
church,  there  may  be  freedom  indeed,  but, 
alas,  what  crude  expositions,  what  plati- 
tudes, what  scarcely  solemn  garrulity.  A 
cultivated  hearer,  and  even  the  speakers  at 
length,  will  come  to  say,  "  My  leanness, 
my  leanness." 

Such  laymen  as  Judge  Williams,  and 
the  others  this  day  commemorated,  show 
us  that  it  will  not  do  to  divert  every  able 
and  devout  young  man,  in  other  useful 
employments,  to  the  ministry.  The  chur- 
ches need  judges,  governors,  physicians, 
merchants,  manufacturers,  in  their  ranksj 
and  these  the  best  of  their  kind.  The 
Master  makes  requisition  for  such  a  law- 
yer as  Thomas  Scott  Williams,  as  really  as 
for  such  a  minister  as  Dr.  Joel  Hawes. 

I  am  jealous  for  the  honor  of  Christian- 
ity when  eminent  men  are  cited  as  if  it 
needed  the  patronage  of  their  names.  I 
would  use  them,  however,  to  show  the 
mauifoldness  of  Christianity — how  it  finds 
transparencies  for  its  divine  purity  and 
brightness  in  all  materials,  in  vessels  of 
gold  and  in  earthen  vessels,  a  like  lineage 
and  quality  in  a  door-keeper  in  the  house 
of  our  God  and  in  a  Chief  Justice  not  less 
humble  within  its  walls.  As  the  vitahty 
of  nature  shapes  and  tints  the  passion- 
flower for  a  day,  and  builds  and  twists  the 
oak  for  a  century,  so  the  grace  of  God 
works  through  all  diversities  of  gifts,  min- 
istries and  operations,  toward  the  com- 
pleteness of  his  spiritual  temple.  "Unto 
Him  be  glory  in  the  church  by  Christ  Je- 
sus throughout  all  affes." 


GOV.  WILLIAM  ALFEED  BUCKINGHAM,  LL.  D. 


Sketch  of  Hon.  Wm.  A.  Buckingham.  |  a  clergyman  ?      Let  me  be  permitted  to- 
BY  REV.  LEONAKD  BACON.  D.  B.  ^"^^^^^  *^i«  quBstiou ;  for  it  is  not  unim- 

The  word  "layman  "is  one  of  the  words  Portant  in  its  relation  to  the  example  of 
—unknown  to  the  Scriptures,  and  equally  the  great  and  good  man  whom  I  have 
unkown  to  the  primitive  age  of  New  Eng- 
land— which  have  crept  into  our  ecclesi- 
astical dialect  from  that  of  churches  con- 
stituted on  a  theory  very  different  from 
New  Testament  Congregationalism.  In 
some  quarters  we  hear  of  "  presbyterial 
parity"  in  opposition  to  "prelacy"  ;  but 
the  parity  in  a  Congregational  church  is 
more  radical  and  more  important.  It  is  1  by  the  pastor  and  teacher  inducted  into 
Christian  parity  in  opposition  to  the  idea  i  office  in  that  church,  and  giving  heed  con 
of  a  hierarchy  or  ecclesiastical  and  spirit- 1  tinually  to  that  official  work. 


named. 

Congregationalism,  from  the  days  of 
John  Robinson,  recognizes  not  only  an 
official  ministry  but  an  unofficial,  a  min- 
istry in  the  discharge  of  an  office,  and  a 
ministry  simply  in  the  exercise  of  gifts. 
There  is  to  be,  in  every  well-ordered 
church,  the  official  ministry  of  the  Word 


But  there  is 
also  an  unofficial  ministry.  There  are  in 
some  churches,  and  there  may  be  in  any 
church,  brethren  whose  gifts  of  knowledge 
and  utterance  the  church  in  some  way 
recognizes,  and  for  them,  though  they 
hold  no  office,  the  ancient  Congregational- 
ism asserted  *'  the  liberty  of  prophesying." 
Some  of  them  are  men  who  have  given 
years  to  the  study  of  divine  truth  and  to 
the  training  of  their  powers  for  public  dis- 
and  who  have  been  inducted  into  a 


ual  aristocracy  among  Christian  believers. 
A  Congregational  church  does  not  consist 
of  two  orders,  clergy  and  laity ;  it  honors 
that  word  of  the  one  Master,  "  All  ye  are 
brethren."    Its  pastor  or  bishop,   like  a 
deacon,  is  simply  a  brother  holding  a  de- 
finite office — as  a  justice  of  the  peace  or  a 
governor  is  nothing  more   than  a  citizen 
elected  to   a  certain  office  by  his  fellow- 
citizens.     Neither  deacon  nor  pastor  is  in- 
troduced by  ordination  into   a  ruling  or  i  course, 
mediating  priesthood.     They  are  servants  Public  ministry  by  ordination   as  evange- 
in  the  Lord's  house,   not  members  in  a  [lists,   or,  having    sustained    the  pastoral 
house  of  lords.     For  the  time,  they  are  j  office,  have  laid  it  down  with  honorable 
brethren  in   office  ;  by  resignation  or  dis- 1  commendation.     These  are  men  who  make 
mission  they  become  again,  just  what  they  j  the  ministration  of  the  Word,  in  one  way 


were  before  their  election,  brethren  not  in 
office. 

What,  then,  do  we  mean  when,  in  a  Con- 
gregational church,  or  in  a  conf erei  c  3  or 
council  of  Congregational  churches,  we 
make  a  distinction  between  clergy  and 
laity  ?  I  am  to  speak  of  that  eminently 
Christian  man,    William  Alfbed  Buck- 


and  another,  as  they  find  opportunity, 
their  business  or  profession,  and  if  it  is  as 
recognized  members  of  a  le^*ned  profess- 
ion, and  not  as  having  any  official  posi- 
tion, or  any  superiority  of  rank  in  the 
kingdom  of  Christ,  that  they  are  clergy- 
men. To  a  professional  lawyer  or  physi- 
cian, all  who  are  not  of  his  profession  are 


INGHAM,  as  a  "  faithful  layman. "  What  is  ;  laymen.  In  the  courts  of  Westminster 
a  layman?  What,  in  a  Congregational  j  Hall  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  is  a 
church,  is  the  difference  between  him  and  I  layman,  as  the  Lord  High   Chancellor  is 


GOV.    BUCKINGHAM. 


among  medical  men,  or  in  the  Church  of 
England.  So  among  those  who  hold,  in- 
telligently and  consistently,  the  Congrega- 
tional theory  of  what  the  church  is,  those 
words  "clergyman"  and  "layman"  in- 
dicate no  difference  of  ecclesiastical  rank 
or  dignity.  They  are  not  church  words  at 
all.  They  only  indicate  that  one  brother 
is,  and  the  other  is  not,  a  member  of  a 
certain  learned  profession.  In  the  church, 
the  clergyman  who  is  not  in  office  as  a 
pastor  or  a  deacon  is  simply  a  brother, 
and  the  layman  is  his  peer. 

The  layman  then,  in  a  Congregational 
church,  differs  from  a  clergyman  not  as 
having  less  authority,  nor  as  holding  a  less 
dignified  position,  nor  as  bearing  a  lighter 
burthen  of  responsibility  for  the  welfare 
of  the  church,  but  only  as  not  being  by 
profession  a  preacher  of  the  gospel.  He 
is  doing  the  will  of  God  in  some  secular 
business,  while  the  clergyman  is  employed 
— or  perhaps  is  looking  for  employment — 
in  the  more  sacred  work  of  pubHc  preach- 
ing. The  faithful  layman  is  the  devout 
layman  who  walks  by  faith,  whose  life  is 
hid  with  Christ  in  God,  and  in  whose  hands 
his  secular  business — whatever  it  may  be 
— is  holy  because  he  is  doing  all  things 
heartily  as  to  the  Lord.  Having  found 
out  what  the  work  is  to  which  God  calls 
him,  he  makes  that  work  his  service  of 
God, — whether  he  be  Luke  the  beloved 
physician,  or  Zenas  the  lawyer — whether 
he  be  farmer  or  artizan,  merchant  or  man- 
ufacturer, artist  or  poet,  laborer  for  wages 
or  one  who  finds  abundant  employment  in 
the  care  and  use  of  the  wealth  which  he 
has  inherited  or  accumulated.  His  being 
a  layman  does  not  imply  that  he  is — as  the 
members  of  the  Jewish  council  thought 
Peter  and  John  were — "  unlearned  and 
ignorant ;  "  nor  that  he  is  less  intelligent 
than  the  professional  preacher  in  regard  to 
the  contents  of  the  Christian  revelation. 
On  the  contrary,  he  may  have  studied  suc- 
cessfully all  the  branches  of  learning  that 
belong  to  a  regular  preparation  for  the 
ministry — he  may  have  trained  his  facul- 
ties of  thought  and  speech  for  use  in  pub- 


25 

he  discourse — he  may  have  been  introduced 
to  the  chlirches  as  a  candidate  for  the  min- 
istry, he  may  have  been  ordained  as  pastor 
or  evaflgehst,  and  may  have  had  long  prac- 
tice in  the  work — and  then,  after  all,  he 
may  have  found  that  the  same  voice  which 
once  called  him  into  the  ministry  was  call- 
ing him  out  of  the  ministry  into  some 
other  service,  and  in  obedience  to  that  call 
he  may  have  become  a  layman  again.* 

Of  the  things  which  I  have  said,  this  is 
the  sum.  A  Congregational  church  recog- 
nizes no  distinction,  in  respect  to  privilege 
or  duty,  between  the  clergyman  as  such 
and  the  layman.  Every  member  alike  is 
under  the  rule  which  Paul  gave  to  the  dis- 
ciples at  Rome.  [Rom.  xii.]  Exhorting 
them  to  present  themselves  to  God,  a  living 
sacrifice, he  adds,"  I  say  through  the  grace 
given  to  me" — i.  e.,  in  the  exercise  of  my 
gift  as  an  Apostle,  ' '  to  every  one  among 
you  that  he  must  not  think  of  himself 
more  highly  than  he  ought  to  think,  but 
must  think  soberly  as  God  has  divided  to 
each  one  a  measure  of  faith."  In  other 
words,  let  every  man,  humbly  and  thought- 
fully, form  a  sober  estimate  of  the  gift  or  gifts 
with  which  God  has  entrusted  him.  "  For 
as  we  have  many  members  in  one  body, 
and  the  members  have  not  all  one  function, 
so  we,  being  many,  are  one  body  in 
Christ,  and  one  by  one  are  members  one 
!  of  another" — members  mutually.  "Hav- 
ing then  gifts  differing  according  to  the 
grace  that  is  given  to  us,"  let  us  use  them 
for  the  welfare  of  the  body  in  which  we 
are  members.  He  proceeds  to  illustrate 
and  enforce  his  meaning  by  an  enumer- 
ation of  the  diverse  gifts  by  virtue  of 
which  each  member  has  his  function.  One 
has  the  gift  of  prophecy  or  of  exalted  and 
fervent  discourse  in  Christian  assemblies ; 

*The  first  Governor  Trumbull  was  educated  for 
the  ministry  of  the  Gospel,  was  regularly  "  ap- 
probated" as  a  preacher,  was  invited  to  become 
pastor  of  the  church  in  Colchester,  but  on  ac- 
count of  impaired  health,  withdrew  fi-om  his 
chosen  profession  and  became  a  layman. 

Governor  Saltonetall  was  pastor  of  the  church 
in  New  London  from  A.  D  1691  to  A.  D.  1707. 
Then,  being  called  to  the  office  of  Governor,  he 
was  dismissed  from  the  pastoral  charge  and 
ceased  to  bo  a  clegyman  or  professional  minister. 


26  GOV.    BUCKINGHAM. 

another  has  a  gift  of  ministry  or  service. 
One  can  teach ;  another  can  exhort.  One 
is  so  endowed  that  he  can  be  a  giver ; 
another  has  a  faculty  for  affairs  and  is  just 
the  man  for  chairman  of  a  committee  or 
superintendent  of  some  Christian  enter- 
prise ;  while  yet  another  has  a  special  tal- 
ent for  showing  mercy,  and  can  go  to  the 
suffering  or  the  sorrowing,  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  with  tender  sympathy  and  with 
cheerfulness  in  every  look  and  tone.  All 
this  is  just  what  another  Apostle  [I.  Peter 
iv,  10,  11,]  says,  "  As  every  man  hath  re- 
ceived the  gift,  even  so  minister  the  same 
one  to  another,  as  good  stewards  of  the 
manifold  grace  of  God  :  If  any  man  speak, 
let  him  speak  as  the  oracles  of  God,  if  any 
man  minister,  let  him  do  it  as  of  the  ability 
which  God  giveth. " 

It  remains  for  me  only  to  say  a  few 
words  by  way  of  showing  how  these  apos- 
tolic precepts  were  illustrated  in  the  char- 
acter and  services  of  the  man  whom  God 
raised  up  to  be  the  chief  magistrate  of  our 
State  through  the  years  of  conflict  in 
which  the  right  of  these  United  States  to 
be  a  nation  was  maintained  and  vindicated. 

The  story  of  Governor  Buckingham's 
life  need  not  be  recited  here  in  its  details. 
Born  of  Congregational  and  purely  Con- 
necticut lineage, — son  of  a  deacon  in  the 
church  of  Lebanon, — descended  in  the 
fifth  generation  from  Thomas  Bucking- 
ham, the  first  pastor  in  the  church  at  Say- 
brook,  and  in  the  sixth  from  another 
Thomas  Buckingham,  ruling  elder  in  the 
church  of  Milford, — he  was  from  the  be- 
ginning of  his  Christian  course  a  "faith- 
ful layman" — faithful  as  a  "  good  steward 
of  the  manifold  grace  of  God,"  minister- 
ing "  as  of  the  ability  which  God  gave  " 
him.  Not  having  been  educated  for  a 
learned  profession,  nor  finding  himself 
called  to  try  whether  he  could  "live  of  the 
gospel,"  he  never  thought  of  being  any- 
thing else  than  a  layman  in  the  Christian 
brotherhood,  though  he  was  modestly 
conscious  of  gifts  by  which  he  was  to  serve 
that  brotherhood.  Brought  up  "in  the 
nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord  "  by  a 


godly  father,  and  by  a  mother  who  was 
not  less  saintly  than  the  "grandmother 
Lois"  and  the  "mother  Eunice"  com- 
memorated as  having  brought  up  Timothy 
of  old,  and  whose  constant  lesson  to  her 
children  was,  "Whatever  else  you  are,  I 
want  you  to  be  Christians,"  he  became  a 
Christian  in  the  highest  meaning  of  that 
word,  we  know  not  how  early;  though  it 
was  not  till  he  had  seen  twenty-eight  years 
of  life,  that  he  made  profession  of  his  per- 
sonal hope  in  Christ,  and  entered  into 
covenant  with  what  was  then  the  only 
Congregational  church  in  the  city  where 
he  had  established  his  home.  He  did  not 
"  think  of  himself  more  highly  than  he 
ought  to  think,"  (I  never  knew  a  man  who 
seemed  farther  from  such  folly ;)  but  he 
thought  "  soberly"  in  order  that  he  might 
use  to  the  best  purpose  whatever  gifts 
"the  manifold  gace  of  God"  had  en- 
trusted to  him.  Having  as  one  gift  a  sig- 
nal ability  for  business,  he  used  it  as  a 
talent  which  he  was  to  "occupy"  till  his 
Lord  should  come ;  and  God  so  prospered 
him  that  his  use  of  that  talent  contributed 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  many  who  found 
employment  under  his  direction,  and  thus 
to  the  prosperity  of  his  city  and  the  State. 
In  the  gathering  of  a  new  church  de- 
manded by  the  growth  of  that  city,  he  had 
a  leading  part  like  that  of  his  first  Amer- 
ican ancestor  who  was  one  of  the  "  seven 
pillars"  in  gathering  the  Milford  church 
under  the  roof  of  Robert  Newman's  barn 
in  New  Haven,  two  hundred  years  before. 
The  character  and  work  of  that  church 
from  its  beginning  to  this  day — its  spirit 
and  growth  as  a  Christian  brotherhood,  its 
local  influence  in  the  thriving  city  which  it 
helps  to  enlighten  and  to  guard,  its  influ- 
ence among  the  churches  of  that  county 
and  of  the  State,  the  largeness  and  con- 
stancy of  its  giving  for  the  advancement 
of  Christ's  kingdom  in  the  world — tell  of 
what  he  was  as  a  "faithful  layman."  He 
could  "  shew  mercy,"  and  he  exercised 
that  gift  "with  cheerfulness;"  his  loving 
and  cheerful  countenance  was  like  sun- 
shine to  the   suffering   or  the   sorrowing. 


GOVERNOR    BUCKINGHAM. 


God  endowed  him  with  ability  to  "give" 
largely  as  well  as  generously,  and  he  gave 
with  singleness  of  heart,  so  that  the  record 
of  his  worldly  prosperity  is  the  record  of 
his  contributions  to  every  enterprise  of 
Christian  love  and  wisdom,  and  particular 
ly  to  the  building  of  the  temple  in  which 
he  was  a  worshiper,  to  the  appended  chapel 
which  bhars  his  name  to  the  Norwich  Free 
Academy,  and  to  the  venerable  university 
which  enrolls  the  name  of  his  ancestor 
among  its  founders  and  has  gratefully 
given  his  name  to  one  of  its  professorships. 
He  had  such  a  gift  of  good  sense  and 
clear  thought  with  gracerful  utterance 
that  he  could  "  exhort "  efiectively,  and  he 
did  so  whenever  he  found  occasion  for  a 
Christian  word  of  help,  encouragement  or 
consolation,  though,  I  am  sure,  he  never 
attempted  to  exhort  when  he  had  nothing 
to  say.  He  could  "teach "for  he  was  a 
man  of  large  and  ever-increasing  intel- 
ligence, of  magnetic  sympathy,  and  with 
ready  command  of  all  he  knew;  and  he 
found  time  and  heart,  notwithstanding  all 
his  business  cares,  to  be  a  teacher  and  a 
superintendent  in  the  Sabbath  school. 
Serving  his  church,  as  one  of  its  deacons, 
through  a  series  of  years,  he  was  a  signal 
example  of  what  that  saying  means, 
"They  that  have  used  the  office  of  a  dea- 
con well  purchase  to  themselves  a  good 
degree,  and  great  boldness  in  the  faith 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus." 

The  faithful  clergyman  is  tested  by  his 
fidelity  in  his  sacred  profession.  So  the 
"faithful  layman"  is  to  be  tested  by  his 
Christian  faithfulness  in  all  the  work  and 
duty  of  his  secular  employment.  Let  it 
be  remembered  then  that  the  great  and 
beautiful  example  of  the  layman  whose 
example  I  am  trying  to  hold  up  before  this 
conference  of  Christian  men,  was  not  only, 
nor  chiefly,  what  he  was  and  did  in  the 
Broadway  church  of  Norwich,  teaching  in 
its  Sabbath-school,  giving  voice  to  thought 
or  aspiration  in  its  prayer  meetings,  serv- 
ing among  its  deacons, — but  was  rather, 
nay  far  more,  what  he  was  and  did  in  his 
secular  employments  and  in  those  domes- 
tic and  social  or  civil  relations  of  his  which 
were    sanctified     by  the    sweetness     and 


27 

beauty  of  his  Christian  living.  His  home 
— so  full  of  love,  so  hallowed  by  prayer, 
so  hospitable,  so  happy  even  when  its 
windows  were  darkened  by  the  shadow  of 
death — did  not  everybody  who  knew  him 
know  that  it  was  almost  within  "  the  verge 
of  heaven  "  ?  As  a  man  of  business,  in 
the  counting-room  or  at  the  counter,  and 
in  his  relation  to  all  whom  he  employed  or 
with  whom  he  had  dealings,  he  felt,  and 
others  knew,  that  he  was  a  servant  of  God, 
doing  the  will  of  the  Father  in  the  Spirit 
of  Christ.  As  a  citizen,  moving  his  neigh- 
bors and  townsmen  to  public-spirited  un- 
dertakings for  their  common  benefit  and 
the  benefit  of  their  children  after  them,  or 
participrting  in  the  agitation  of  questions 
that  concern  the  State  and  the  nation,  he 
was,  not  less  than  in  other  relations  and 
duties,  a  servant  of  God.  As  a  magistrate, 
when  his  neighbors  of  Norwich  made  him 
the  mayor  of  their  city — still  more,  when 
the  people  of  Connecticut,  at  a  time  dark 
with  portents  dimly  understood,  chose  him 
to  the  chief  place  of  government  in  their 
commonwealth — he  was  not  less  the  ser- 
vant of  God  than  if  he  had  been  chosen 
and  ordained  to  the  holiest  ministry  in  the 
church.  We  are  talking  much,  of  late, 
about  "Christian  work,"  and  we  do  well 
to  think  and  talk  about  it.  But  let  us  take 
care  not  to  misunderstand  it  or  misrep- 
resent it.  All  the  legitimate  work  of  a 
Christian  in  this  world  is  "  Christian 
work."  No  man  in  whom  the  spirit  of 
Christ  is,  will  intelligently  engage  in  any 
work  which  is  not  holy  in  his  doing  of  it — 
hallowed — yea  glorified,  by  his  self-conse- 
cration. The  work  of  our  Buckingham  as 
Governor  of  Connecticut,  like  that  of  his 
great  predecessor,  the  first  Governor  Trum- 
bull, was  Christian  work.  For  that  work 
God  raised  him  up  and  furnished  him  with 
gifts  and  graces.  To  that  work  God  called 
him  as  truly  as  he  called  David  to  rule 
over  Israel.  In  that  office,  with  its  bur- 
then of  responsibility,  its  iiarrassiug  cares, 
its  alternations  of  disaster  and  success,  its 
protracted  agony,  and  its  victorious  con- 
summation, he  was  doing  as  Christian  a 
work  as  ever  was  done  in  a  prayer  meet- 
ing or  a  Sunday-school.  That  work,  done 
in  the  fear  and  service  of  God  by  a  "faith- 
ful layman,"  was  as  truly  Christian  work 
as  any  that  could  be  done  by  the  most 
faithful  clergyman. 


HON.  HENRY  PHILEMON  HAVEN. 


A  Faithful  Layman. 

A  SKETCH  OF  HON.  HENRY  P.  HAVEN. 

BY   H.    CLAY   TRtrMBULL. 

A  life  that  has  been  actually  lived  is  a 
far  more  effective  argument  in  behalf  of 
every  good  quality  and  habit  which  it 
illustrates,  than  the  most  persuasive  words 
oould  be.  It  is  easy  to  question  if  any 
ideal  of  a  symmetrical  character  and  an 
upright  walk  is  practically  attainable.  It 
is  useless  to  deny  that  what  a  man  has 
been  and  has  done  is  a  possibility  in  the 
world  as  it  is.  This  truth  it  is  which  gives 
added  value  to  the  story  of  these  Christian 
ministers  and  Christian  laymen  who  were 
"  an  example  of  the  believers." 

And  now,  in  telling  before  this  Confer- 
ence a  simple  story  of  Henry  P.  Haven,  I 
want  at  the  start  to  turn  back  to  the  very 
beginning  of  his  well-roiinded  life,  which 
we  commemorate  and  honor,  that  we  may 
note  the  germs,  and  observe  the  growth  of 
those  characteristics  and  those  modes  of 
conduct  which  made  that  life  in  so  large  a 
degree  a  success  and  a  pattern. 

Mr.  Haven  was  bom  of  substantial  New 
England  stock,  in  Norwich,  Conn.,  in 
February,  1815.  His  father  died  when  he 
was  four  years  old.  His  mother  was  left 
with  five  children,  and  no  property  except 
the  humble  house  in  which  she  lived,  aiid 
an  acre  of  ground  about  it,  from  the  cul- 
tivation of  which  her  annual  income  never 
exceeded  one  hundred  dollars.  Henry 
was  next  to  the  youngest  child,  but  as  the 
only  son  at  home  he  was  early  called  to 
important  responsibilities  for  the  house- 
hold. And  for  this  he  had  reason  to  be 
thankful;  for  "it  is  good  for  a  man  that 
he  bear  the  yoke  in  his  youth. "  While  he 
was  yet  but  seven  years  old,  this  son 
chopped  all  the  firewood  for  his  home. 
Being  too  young  to  swing  an  axe  he  made 
a  hatchet  do  double  duty,  learning  thus 
the  important  lesson  that  it  matters  less 
what  tools  you  use,  than  what  you  do  with 
them ;  and  that  it  is  better  to  avail  your- 
self of  an  instrument  you  can  handle  than 
to  depend  on  that  which  is  only  suited  to 
a  larger  grasp.  Not  until  he  was  fifteen 
years  old  did  tlie  lad  have  his  first  suit  of 
new  clothes.     Until  then  old  garments  had 


been  made  over  for  him  by  his  frugal 
mother.  He  was,  therefore,  as  a  boy, 
little  tempted  by  pride  of  dress  or  of  per- 
sonal display.  His  pride  was  an  honest 
pride  in  caring  successfully  for  his  mother 
and  sisters.  He  felt  Uke  a  king,  he  said, 
when  his  mother  bought  her  first  cow,  and 
it  was  put  in  hie  charge.  And  he  ruled 
well  in  his  little  kingdom ;  so  well  that 
God  gave  him  larger  power  and  greater 
possessions. 

Beyond  attendance  at  the  imperfect  pub- 
lic school  of  that  period,  young  Haven 
was  for  two  terms  at  a  select  school,  where 
the  tuition  was  five  dollars  a  term.  To 
meet  this  expense  he  borrowed  ten  dollars, 
which  he  returned  from  his  earliest  sub- 
sequent earnings.  And  from  that  time 
forward  he  had  always  warm  sympathy 
with  young  men  who  needed  help  in  their 
struggle  for  an  education.  But  it  was  to 
the  Sunday-school — the  school  of  the  old 
First  Congregational  Church  of  Norwich 
Town — that  Mr.  Haven  owed  most,  for  the 
influences,  other  than  those  at  his  child- 
hood's home,  which  shaped  his  character 
and  directed  his  course  for  good.  Indeed, 
he  used  often  to  say  that  it  was  the  Sun- 
day-school which  made  him.  The  school 
of  that  First  Church  was  started  by  a 
young  girl, — Harriet  Lathrop,  afterward 
the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Myron  Winslow 
of  the  Ceylon  Mission.  She  encountered 
no  little  prejudice  and  opposition  in  form- 
ing that  school,  but  she  persevered,  and  at 
its  fiftieth  anniversary  the  record  showrd 
that  twenty- six  ministers  of  Christ,  and 
hundreds  of  other  Ohristion  disciples,  had 
already  gone  out  from  that  training-schuul 
of  devotion.  It  was  in  that  school  that 
Henry  P.  Haven  received  some  of  his  tiist 
religious  impressions,  and  that  he  learned 
to  love  the  department  of  church  activity 
in  which  he  did  so  much  for  his  Saviour 
and  for  his  fellows. 

When  young  Haven  was  about  fifteen, 
his  mother  moved  to  New  London.  There 
her  son  was  indentured  to  Major  Thomas 
W.  Williams,  a  prominent  ship-owner  and 
merchant  of  that  seaport.  The  boy  was 
to  have  ninety  dollars  for  his  first  year's 
wages  :  one  hundred  and  twenty  for  each 
of  the  next  two  years ;  and  one  hundred 
and  fifty  a  year  for  the  remaining  period 
of  his  apprenticeship.  Out  of  this  sum 
he  was  to  pay  for  his  board  and  other  liv- 
ing expenses.  Not  much  temptation  to 
extravagance  in  the  disposition  of  that  in- 


HON.    H.    P.    HAVEN. 


come  !  It  would  be  easy  to  get  up  a  labor 
riot  ou  that  scale  of  wages  for  the  coal- 
heavers  of  to-day.  But  youug  Haven  was 
less  concerned  about  what  he  was  getting 
than  what  he  was  doing.  His  anxiety  was 
to  fill  his  jslace  rather  than  his  pocket. 
The  question  with  him  was  never,  How 
little  work  will  answer  here?  but,  How 
much  can  I  here  do  to  advantage  ?  He 
hoiked  to  have  promotion.  He  was  deter- 
mined to  deserve  it.  When  the  book- 
keeper of  the  establishment  gave  up  his 
position,  Haven  asked  if  he  might  keep 
the  books.  He  was  told  that  he  was  quite 
too  young ;  but  at  his  request  he  was  per- 
mitted to  make  the  trial.  During  this  pro- 
bation he  did  all  his  ordinary  work  in  the 
store  besides  attending  to  the  books.  He 
worked  determinedly,  and  was  at  it  early 
and  late.  On  one  occasion,  at  least,  he 
was  at  his  desk  until  two  in  the  morning, 
and  back  in  the  store  at  four.  His  devo- 
tion and  energy  told.  When  the  first  of 
January  came  round,  the  yearly  balance 
sheet  was  more  quickly  and  easily  made 
than  ever  before.  His  new  place  was  se- 
cure. At  nineteen  his  wages  were  raised 
from  one  hundred  and  fifty  to  four  hund- 
red dollars  a  year.  When  his  apprentice- 
ship was  completed,  he  was  engaged  on  a 
salary  of  five  hundred  dollars.  It  was 
while  he  was  clerk  with  his  limited  income 
that  he  began  to  give  of  his  means  into 
the  Lord's  treasury,  and  that  he  first  ex- 
tended aid  to  young  men  struggling  for  an 
education.  At  twenty-three  he  became  a 
partner  with  Major  Williams  in  the  bus- 
iness in  which  he  continued  through  life. 
His  industry,  his  energy,  his  fidelity  to 
duty, — not  his  genius, — gave  him  a  fair 
start  in  the  world.  All  of  success  that  he 
had  from  the  beginning  he  earned,  and 
whatever  he  wanted  he  was  willing,  and  he 
expected,  to  work  for. 

So  much  for  the  boyhood  and  youth  of 
Mr.  Haven.  Now  for  his  business  man- 
hood, and  his  Christian  service.  He  was 
still  an  appi'entice  when  he  made  a  public 
profession  of  his  faith  in  Jesus  by  con- 
necting himself  with  the  Second  Congre- 
gational Church  of  New  London.  He  was 
very  soon  a  teacher  in  the  Sunday-school 
of  that  church  ;  but  he  wanted  to  do  more 
than  that  for  the  agency  which  had  done 
so  much  for  him.  One  Sunday  morning, 
in  May,  1836, then  twenty-one  years  old,  he 
asked  his  superintendent,  just  before  the 
opening  of  the  school  session,  if  he  knew 
of  any  place  where  neighborhood  mission 
work  was  needed,  where  he  could  aid  in 
starting  a  Sunday-School,  in  the  country 
about  New  London.     "Certainly  I  do," 


29 

was  the  superintendent's  reply.  "  A  man 
is  to  call  here  this  very  morning  from  a 
district  in  Waterford,  to  see  if  he  can  get 
some  one  to  start  a  Sunday-school  there. 
There  is  the  place  for  you.  Go  with  him. " 
The  suddenness  of  this  opening  startled 
Mr.  Haven.  He  was  at  first  disposed  to 
consider  the  question  further.  "  There's 
no  time  like  the  present,"  said  the  good 
superintendent.  "The  Lord  wants  you. 
Go  at  once."  Whereupon  the  young  man 
was  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  injunc- 
tion, but  entered  promptly  on  a  new  field 
of  Christian  activity. 

The  neighborhood  in  question  was  not  a 
promising  one.  Although  the  population 
there  was  scanty,  rum-selling  and  drunk- 
enness were  common,  and  there  were 
houses  of  vilest  repute  within  the  district 
boundaries.  It  had  been  made  a  sink  of 
iniquity  by  the  worst  class  of  evil-doers 
from  the  neighboring  seaport  town.  But 
a  better  day  was  at  hand  for  it.  Nine 
scholars  and  seven  teachers,  under  the  lead 
of  the  inexperienced  but  earnest  and  faith- 
ful young  superintendent,  gathered  on  the 
afternoon  of  a  bright  May  Sunday,  in  the 
httle  school-house  of  the  district,  and  or- 
ganized a  Sunday-school  which  has  never 
died  out.  Mr.  Haven  continued  in  charge 
of  that  school  until  his  death.  He  was 
preparing  for  its  fortieth  anniversary  when 
he  entered  into  rest  Through  the  influ- 
ence of  that  school  the  neighborhood  about 
it  was  thoroughly  renovated,  until  it  be- 
came as  prominent  for  its  high  standard  of 
morals  as  it  had  been  before  for  its  low. 

The  school-house  was  four  miles  from 
Mr.  Haven's  home ;  but,  during  summer 
and  winter,  in  fair  weather  and  storm,  he 
passed  to  and  fro  in  all  those  forty  years, 
over  the  intervening  road,  to  continue  the 
work  he  had  undertaken  there.  And  not 
perseverance  alone,  but  originality  of  con- 
ception,  and  tact  and  skill  in  execution,  as 
a  Sunday-school  worker,  were  evidenced  in 
Mr.  Haven's  methods  with  that  school. 
Almost  from  the  beginning  he  had  respon- 
sive readings  of  Scripture  in  the  opening 
service,  a  uniform  lesson  for  the  entire 
school,  a  teachers'-meeting,  and  a  teachers' 
normal  class,  with  other  aids  to  thorough- 
ness and  efficiency  of  instruction  which  are 
yet  by  no  means  generally  adopted  in  our 
church  Sunday-schools.  And  this  was 
forty  years  ago,  in  a  back  country  district, 
where  only  three  or  four  houses  were  in 
sight  of  the  school-house ;  the  superin- 
tendent was  barely  twenty-one  years  old  : 
until  he  was  fifteen  he  had  always  toiled  as 
a  farm  boy,  shut  out  from  intercourse  with 
the  foremost    Sunday-school    workers    of 


30 

that  period — when  at  the  best  the  methods 
in  vogue  were  commonly  unscientific  and 
primitive.  It  certainly  well  illustrates  the 
qualities  which  gave  Mr.  Haven  power 
among  the  best  skilled  workers  in  the  Sun- 
day-school field  up  to  the  day  of  his  death  ; 
and  it  illustrates  also  the  truth  that  if  a 
man  will  heartily  give  himself  to  Christ's 
service,  God  will  honor  and  make  efiective 
the  two  talents  or  the  ten  which  are  thus 
called  into  play,  and  that  the  man  shall 
have  wisdom  and  strength  according  to  his 
day  and  needs. 

But  the  Waterford  school  was  but  one  of 
many  spheres  of  Christian  activity  in  which 
Mr.  Haven  faithfully  served   his  Master. 
He  taught  a  class  in  the  home  school  of  his 
church,  and  for  some  twenty  years  before 
his  death  he  superintended  that  school  as 
well  as  the  one  in  the  country.     He  was 
faithful  in  general  church  work.     He  could 
be  counted   on   in  the  mid-week    prayer- 
meetings.     He  was  ready  to  respond  to 
calls  for  special  service  in  ecclesiastical  and 
Sunday-school  gatherings.     He  was  find- 
ing other  country   neighborhoods  where 
Sunday-schools  ought  to  be  started,  and 
looking  up  other  young  men  who  ought  to 
start  and    take  charge  of    such   schools. 
He  was  prominent  and  efficient  in  local  and 
general  beneficent  organizations.     To  hear 
one  of  his  reports  as  the  secretary  of  his 
county  missionary  society  you  would  think 
that  he  had  given  all  his  spare  time  to  that 
department    of    service.      The   American 
Board  confided  in  him  for  counsel  and  la- 
bor as  one  of  the  more  valued  and  efficient 
of  its  corporate  members.     The  American 
Bible  Society,  The  American  Sunday  School 
Union,  The  American  Tract  Society  by  no 
means  counted  his  official  connection  with 
them  merely  a  nominal  and  honorary  one. 
He  was  ready  to  give  to  and   to  work  for 
each  and  all.     He  was  the  very  foremost 
of    the   Systematic    Beneficence    Society. 
Of  the  American   College   and  Education 
Society  he  was   the  honored  president  at 
the  time   of   his  death.     I  know  not  with 
how  many  others  of  the  great  benevolent 
societies  he  was  in  hearty  co-work  ;  but  I 
am  sure  that  he  faithfully  discharged  every 
trust  of  this  sort  confided  to  him,  while  in 
the  county,  state,  and  national  conferences 
of  his  denomination  he  was,  during  all  his 
later  life,  a  felt  and  recognized  power. 

Moreover  he  was  deeply  interested  in 
educational  movements,  lie  was  at  the 
head  of  the  public-school  interests  of  his 
own  town.  He  visited  not  a  little  in  the 
local  schools  there  and  in  towns  adjacent. 
He  was  a  warm  ad  i'ocate  and  a  much  val- 
ued trustee  of  the  State  Norma]    School. 


HON.    H.    p.    HAVEN. 


He  was  much  in  secular  school  teachers* 
institutes  throughout  the  State.  We  all 
know  of  his  prominence  in  general  Sunday- 
school  work.  In  county  and  State  conven- 
tions of  friends  of  this  cause  he  was  long 
a  leader  and  a  prized  counsellor.  It  was 
so  in  our  national  conventions.  It  wa» 
fitting  that  he  should  be  a  member  of  the 
International  Lesson  Committee — the  one 
lay  member  of  his  denomination  ;  the  only 
member,  lay  or  clerical,  from  New  Eng- 
land. He  did  good  service  on  that  com- 
mittee ;  for  he  was  a  rare  Bible-student, 
and,  in  consequence,  a  rare  Bible-lover. 
He  loved  to  expound  the  Bible  as  well  as 
to  study  it.  He  never  gave  up  teaching  a 
class  in  one  or  other  of  his  schools.  His 
very  last  work  on  earth  was  leading  his 
teachers  in  Bible  study.  And  on  occasions 
he  preached  lay  sermons  in  the  country 
churches  about  him  which  were  for  the 
time  without  pastors — sermons  which  were 
full  of  Scripture,  and  hence  full  of  in- 
struction and  comfort,  as  I  can  testify  with 
positiveness  from  those  of  them  to  which  I 
listened. 

There  seems  hardly  any  limit  to  the 
Christian  activities  of  Mr.  Haven.  I  first 
visited  him,  to  pass  a  few  days  in  his  home 
field,  nineteen  years  ago  this  autumn.  I 
then  learned  something  of  his  remarkable 
efficiency  in  varied  lines  of  service.  On 
Friday  evening  he  led  an  institute  or  nor- 
mal class  of  nearly  two  hundred  teachers 
from  all  the  Sunday-schools  of  New  Lon- 
don. On  Saturday  he  went  out  to  a  Sev- 
enth Day  Baptist  Chiu'ch  in  Waterford, 
where  he  preached  in  the  forenoon  and 
met  the  Sunday-school  at  noon.  In  the 
evening  he  led  his  teachers'  meeting  at  his 
home.  On  Sunday  morning  he  conducted 
the  opening  exercises  of  his  church  school, 
and  then  left  it  that  we  might  ride  out 
several  miles  to  a  small  Baptist  church 
which  he  had  encouraged  and  helped  to  a 
renewal  of  life  and  work  when  its  doors 
had  been  closed,  its  membership  scattered,  . 
and  its  Sunday-school  abandoned.  There 
he  conducted  the  forenoon  service,  and 
preached,  and  was  at  the  Sunday-school 
opening  at  noon.  Thence  he  drove  across 
the  country  to  his  Waterford  school,  which 
I  that  day  saw  for  the  first  time.  Before 
sundown  we  were  back  at  New  London, 
where  he  was  ready  for  the  evening  church 
service.  And  this  was  a  specimen  of  his 
work  for  many  years — much  of  it  done  so 
quietly  that  not  one  in  ten  of  his  fellow 
church-members  and  fellow-citizens  had 
any  knowledge  of  the  extent  and  variety 
of  his  Christian  labors. 
Nor  did  these  religious  activities  lessen 


HON.    H.    P.    HAVFN. 


the  enthusiasm  and  eflaciency  of  Mr.  Ha- 
ven as  a  business  man,  down  to  the  close 
of  his  well-filled  life.  He  was  as  zealous 
and  untiring  in  the  duties  of  the  counting- 
room  as  in  those  of  the  Sunday-school  or 
prayer-meeting,  and  he  was  no  less  suc- 
cessful in  commercial  circles  than  in  a  tech- 
nically religious  sphere.  In  fact,  to  the 
day  of  his  death  Mr.  Haven  had  seemingly 
never  less  interest  in  the  establishment 
where  he  began  as  an  apprentice,  than  he 
showed  in  it  when  he  was  toiling  away  un- 
til after  midnight,  only  to  be  back  at  his 
post  before  dayhght  to  do  the  work  which 
awaited  him  there.  Whatsoever  he  had  to 
do,  he  did  it  "heartily,  as  to  the  Lord." 
Largely  by  his  energy  and  foresight  his 
shipping  house  was  brought  to  its  prom- 
inence as  one  of  the  most  important  in  all 
New  England.  He  was  always  on  the 
alert  for  new  oioenings  and  improved 
methods.  He  started  out  the  first  steam 
whaling- vessel  ever  sent  on  a  voyage,  and 
again  the  first  steam  sealer.  He  fitted  out 
more  than  one  arctic  exploring  expedition. 
When,  in  1867,  Alaska  was  secured  to  our 
government,  Mr.  Haven  early  learned,  by 
correspondence  with  Secretary  Seward, 
that  our  citizens  would  be  protected  in  the 
seal  fishery  there.  At  once  he  despatched 
his  younger  partner  with  a  sealing  captain 
and  mates  by  way  of  Panama  to  the  Sand- 
wich Islands,  where  another  partner  re- 
sided. A  vessel  was  purchased  at  Hon- 
olulu and  put  in  charge  of  the  commander 
sent  from  New  London,  to  push  at  once 
for  the  Alaska  coast.  In  this  way  Mr. 
Haven  compassed  the  earliest  landing  made 
on  those  shores  by  American  traders.  The 
Connecticut  Yankee  had  his  men  across 
the  continent,  out  into  mid-ocean,  and  up 
to  the  far  northern  coast,  while  the  Cal- 
ifornians  were  rubbing  their  eyes  prepar- 
atory to  looking  into  the  possibilities  of 
something  in  that  line.  Mr.  Haven's  ves- 
sel sent  back  forty  thousand  seal-skins  as 
a  result  of  its  first  venture.  Mr.  Dawes, 
of  Massachusetts,  said  of  this  move,  when 
it  afterwards  came  under  review  before  a 
Congressional  committee,  that  it  was  one 
of  the  brightest  business  movements  he 
had  ever  known,  and  that  he  was  proud  of 
the  New  England  keenness  and  enterprise 
which  conceived  and  executed  it. 

And  in  other  departments  of  business 
than  that  of  his  shipping  house,  Mr.  Ha- 
ven displayed  his  business  capacity  and 
devotedness.  As  a  railroad  piesident,  a 
bank  president,  an  administrator  of  in- 
volved estates  and  of  trust  funds,  as  a  ref- 
eree and  arbitrator,  as  a  director  in  various 
important  concerns  he  was  always  faithful 
and  always  efficient.     He   thus   supplied 


31 

convincing  proof  that  Christian  a<3tivity 
is  no  necessary  hindrance  to  business  suc- 
cess. Said  a  business  man  of  New  Lon- 
don, on  the  day  of  Mr,  Haven's  funeral, — 
a  business  man  speaking  of  him  as  a  man 
of  business, — "  I  never  saw  a  man  who 
could  do  so  many  things,  and  do  them  all 
so  well,  as  Henry  P.  Haven."  Could  he 
have  said  more  if  Mr.  Haven  had  devoted 
himself  exclusively  to  secular  pursuits  ? 
It  is  my  conviction,  based  on  my  personal 
acquaintance  with  Mr.  Haven  and  his 
modes  of  thought  and  action,  that  because 
of  the  relieving  change  of  mental  strain 
necessitated  by  the  differing  spheres  of  toil, 
his  religious  labors  enabled  him  to  do 
more  secular  business,  and  to  do  it  better, 
than  would  have  been  possible  to  him  had 
he  confined  himself  to  the  latter  sphere. 
He  was  by  no  means  "slothful  in  bus- 
iness "  through  being  "  fervent  in  spirit." 
He  was  the  stronger  for  his  own  work 
though  not  neglecting  the  Lord's  work. 
Indeed,  all  that  he  did  he  counted  the 
Lord's  work  ;  and  because  he  honored  the 
Lord  in  its  doing  he  was  honored  of  the 
Lord,  and  ' '  the  Lord  made  all  that  he  did 
to  prosper  in  his  hand." 

Perhaps  in  no  one  particular  was  Mr. 
Haven  more  remarkable,  and  more  worthy 
of  imitation  as  a  Christian  business  man,^ 
than  in  the  use  he  made  of  the  profits  of 
his  business.  From  the  beginning  of  his 
Christian  life  he  recognized  his  respon- 
sibility to  God  for  the  employment  of  all 
his  possessions,  whether  of  time,  talents 
or  money.  Very  early  he  formed  a  plan 
of  systematic  giving,  by  which  a  certain 
portion  of  his  surplus  income  was  to  be 
paid  out  in  religious  charities,  and  this  by 
a  sliding  scale  adapted  to  the  growth  of 
his  acquired  property.  As  his  possessions 
increased,  he  was  to  give  away  a  larger 
share  of  his  income,  until — when  his  prop- 
erty had  reached  a  certain  sum — he  should 
donate  in  charity  all  his  income  beyond 
his  moderate  household  and  personal  ex- 
penses. Going  on  in  this  way  he  gave 
more  and  more  largely  until  his  judicious 
benefactions  amounted  to  so  large  an  an- 
nual outlay  that  he  felt  the  necessity  of 
guarding  against  the  appearance  of  osten- 
tation m  giving,  even  to  the  more  prom- 
inent objects  of  beneficence.  For  exam- 
ple, when  he  would  aid  one  of  the  soci- 
eties which  he  valued,  he  would  subscribe 
to  its  funds  what  would  naturally  be  ex- 
pected of  him,  and  then  would  send  anon- 
ymously to  its  treasury  a  donation  of  say 
three  to  ten  times  that  amount.  In  this 
way  his  influence  was  not  withheld  from 
this  object,  while  his  gifts  called  no  atten- 
tion to  himself  as  a  giver. 


32 

So  greatly  did  Mr.  Haven  enjoy  giving 
that  at  times  be  was  disturbed  by  this  fact. 
He  once  told  me  that  he  feared  he  was 
giving  selfishly,  because  he  found  it  easier 
to  give  than  to  withhold.  Thereupon  I 
suggested,  that  if  he  really  thought  it  a 
sin  to  find  pleasure  in  God's  service,  he 
had  better  conscientiously  disregard  the 
commands  of  God,  and  so  secure  the 
merit  of  discomfort ;  that  when  he  next 
saw  a  needy  widow  or  a  group  of  starving 
children,  it  might  be  well  for  him  to  let 
them  suffer,  lest  he  should  gain  enjoyment 
through  relieving  them.  As  he  was  not 
ready  to  follow  this  advice,  I  reminded 
him  that  perhaps  he  was  not  called  to  re- 
ject Christ's  yoke  merely  because  it  proved 
"easy,"  nor  to  throw  off  Christ's  burden 
because,  through  grace,  he  found  it  to  be 
"  light. "  His  giving  became  a  fixed  habit. 
At  one  time,  after  his  property  had  reached 
the  limit  originally  set  for  it,  financial 
stress  reduced  his  income  materially  ;  but 
this  did  not  close  his  hand  against  the 
needy,  or  his  heart  against  the  Lord.  He 
continued  to  give  while  his  benefactions 
steadily  diminished  his  capital.  Having 
apparently  thus  tested  him  sufficiently, 
God  gave  him  renewed  prosperity,  and 
large  means  to  emj)loy  in  his  Master's 
service. 

A  favorite  method  of  Mr.  Haven  of 
giving  and  doing  was  in  the  direction  of 
helping  young  men  into  the  Christian 
ministry.  He  would  fiud  a  youth  in  his 
Waterford  Sunday-school,  or  at  a  carpen- 
ter's bench,  or  on  a  farm,  or  struggling 
along  in  a  preparatory  school  in  the  hope 
of  a  college  course,  who  in  his  opinion 
would  do  well  in  the  ministry,  but  who 
was  not  likely  to  seek  that  profession  un- 
prompted, or  who  lacked  the  means  to  fit 
himself  for  it.  He  would  take  that  youth 
by  the  hand,  question  him  kindly  as  to  his 
desires  and  plans,  and  counsel  him  wisely 
as  to  his  course.  Then,  i^erhaps,  he  would 
promise  and  supply  the  aid  which  in  his 
judgment  seemed  desirable  to  bring  the 
young  man  where  God  wanted  him.  In 
more  than  one  or  two  instances  he  took 
such  a  young  man  directly  into  his  family, 
and  gave  him  a  home  there  until  his  pre- 
paratory studies  were  completed.  He  was 
careful,  however,  not  to  do  anything  for  a 
young  Christian  which  the  young  Chris- 
tian ought  to  do  for  himself ;  for  he  under- 
stood very  well  that  he  helped  others  best 
"when   he  encouraged  them   to  help  them- 


HON.    H.    p.    HAVEN. 


selves.     I  happen  to  know  that  Mr.  Have: 
was  thus  aiding  at  one  time  at  least  twelvi 
young  men  in  their  studies,  and  that  somi 
sixty  or  more  were  helped  by  him  in  gifti 
from  one  hundred  to  two  thousand  dollari 
each.     In  this  way  he  multiplied  himse 
in  the  gospel  field ;  he  increased  the  labor 
ers  for  the  Christian   harvest.     And   nc 
that  he  has   entered  into  rest  his   repre 
sentatives  by  the  score — some  of  them, 
am  confident,  in  this  very  Conference  tO' 
day — are   still  toiling  faithfully  for  theii 
Master  and  his,  while  he,  with  a  clearer 
vision  than  before,  sees  gladly  the  blessed- 
ness  and  the    fullness  of  the  work  into 
which  he  aided  them,  and  is  "satisfied." 
And  this  is  my  story  for  to-day  of  Hen: 
P.  Haven.     He  was  a  single-kearted  Chris 
tian  layman.     Whatever  he  did,  on  week 
day  or  Sunday,  he  did  as  a  servant  of  the 
Lord  Jesus.     He  was   faithful  to  duty  in 
that  which  was    least;    faithful  also    in 
much.     He  was  a  man  of  system ;  he  was 
systematic  to  a  high  degree  in  the  use  of 
his  time   and  his  means.     He  was  a  Bible; 
student ;  and  in  the  study  of  the  Bible  he 
sought  varied  helps  to  Bible  study.     He 
had  a  well-selected  and  a  well-used  library ; 
I  have  rarely  known  a  Christian  layman  of 
whom  this  could  more  truly  be  affirmed. 
He  loved  the  worship  of  God ;  the  church, 
of  God ;  the  house  of  God.     He  delighted 
in  the  old  liturgies.     He  trained  those  who 
were  under  his  influence  into   habits   of 
reverence   in  worship.     He  rested  in  the 
faith   of    a  risen   and  a  coming   Saviour. 
He  did  not  walk  backward  toward  heaven, 
his   eyes   fixed  only  on   Calvary ;  but  he 
rejoiced   in   the  conviction    that  he  who 
died  for  him  rose  from  the  dead ;  and  he 
looked  to  see  him  come  again  in  like  man- 
ner as  he  was  seen  to  go  into  heaven,  to 
receive  his  own  unto  himself.     And  on  one 
Lord's  Day  morning  Mr.  Haven  "walked 
with   God,  and  he  was   not,  for  God  took 
him. "     His  death  was  as  delightful  as  his 
life.     He    died    "in    his   full    strength." 
There  was  no  wasting  of  his  powers,  no 
season   of  uselessness,    no    diminution   of 
activity   and  efficiency,  down  to  the  very 
last.     His  life  was  well  rounded  and  com- 
plete here.     He  passed  at  once  from  the; 
glory  of  Christian   service  on  earth  to  the 
glory  of  Christian  service  beyond.    '  *  Bless- 
ed are  the  dead  "who  thus    "die  in  the 
Lord  ;  "  and   blessed  are  their  memories, 
and  the  memory  of    their    works  which 
"follow  them." 


PHOTOMOUNT 
;   PAMPHLET  BINDER  [ 


Manufactured  by     , 

GAYLORD  BROS.  Inc.  t 

Syracuse,  N.Y.        * 

Stockton,  Calif.        * 


fm^ 


